Anyone else looking forward to this fight tomorrow?
Hard to see past Machida on current form, but Shogun is very capable if he comes in with the right attitude. One of those fights where you know the likely result, but an upset seems oddly just as possible.

Unless Shogun magically regains his 2006 GP form I don't think he ever really puts Lyoto in danger. Machida may play more conservative and settle for a UD though.

Shogun should force the fight so it could be interesting. Just doesn't look like many openings there when Machida fights

I think the more pressure Shogun puts on then the bigger ass whuppin he is going to receive.

Better than meekly getting picked apart on the outside.

Shogun just got screwed..no way he didn't win at least 3 rounds

Man, I think Shogun was robbed there. I had it him winning 4 rounds, 2 of them decisively. Machida just didn't seem to know what to do... and he was eating kicks to the body and legs throughout the fight.
There must be a rematch!

That sucked. Shogun with a heck of a gameplan, I didn't see him winning the fight like that. There were some close rounds but he should have gotten the decision.

Thats fucked, Shogun won that fight easily. Machida had no answer for those leg kicks and was getting fucked up by them.

Bad decision. Why does it always seem like the crowd is the most accurate judge of the night? This was a clear victory for Rua and the judges took it from him.

Yeah it seemed that Shogun landed ok but Machida made the fight at the start and was not too troubled. However i can see how it would seem to be a a tough loss for Shogun. The only thing I can see in Machidas favour is that Shogun did well but was not dominant in the way you would need to take a title off a champ. Having said that I expected a Shogun victory though at the end of the fight.

Originally Posted by bikersk

Yeah it seemed that Shogun landed ok but Machida made the fight at the start and was not too troubled. However i can see how it would seem to be a a tough loss for Shogun. The only thing I can see in Machidas favour is that Shogun did well but was not dominant in the way you would need to take a title off a champ. Having said that I expected a Shogun victory though at the end of the fight.

See i disagree with that logic, this whole you have to take it off the champ bullshit. If you win the fight, you should win the fight...it doesnt say in the rule book that in title fights that you have to even more then what you would usually have to do to win. Its a fucked up mindset and its that mindset that causes robberies in boxing and MMA. It needs to go.

Originally Posted by snakey

Originally Posted by bikersk

Yeah it seemed that Shogun landed ok but Machida made the fight at the start and was not too troubled. However i can see how it would seem to be a a tough loss for Shogun. The only thing I can see in Machidas favour is that Shogun did well but was not dominant in the way you would need to take a title off a champ. Having said that I expected a Shogun victory though at the end of the fight.

See i disagree with that logic, this whole you have to take it off the champ bullshit. If you win the fight, you should win the fight...it doesnt say in the rule book that in title fights that you have to even more then what you would usually have to do to win. Its a fucked up mindset and its that mindset that causes robberies in boxing and MMA. It needs to go.

Absolutely.
I said it after the Dirrell/Froch fight, this logic that you must somehow fight in an overly aggressive style and dominate to "take" a title is ridiculous. The aim of a fight is to hit and not be hit... and that is generally what Shogun and Dirrell did in their fights.
I mean, lets look at it for a second. If you are a judge and you see a defensive counter-puncher land 50 shots in a round compared to about 10 punches for his always aggressive and wild swinging, world champion opponent, should you actually sit there after the round ends and say to yourself;
"Well, he totally outboxed him, but this is a title fight and he has to come forward to get my respect! For that, I'm scoring the round 10-9 in the champion's favour."

Do you see just how retarded that logic is? It is basically making a mockery of the fundamentals of the sport, negating everything that a fighter is taught all through his life in the gym and forcing him to change his style for a title fight.

The sooner this backwards line of thinking disappears, the better.

I think in a rematch (which Machida is all for) Lyoto does better.

i like both fighters and was hoping rua to do well but i really dont think he won. I said it way before the fight that rua would be lyotos toughest bout and i was right. It was tough because rua was never discourage and dominated. He would explode here and there but I thought lyoto was still winning rounds. I actually had it 3 rounds to 0 for Lyoto going into the fourth.