A Good Fight

This week was capped off on Saturday with a very important event for one of my favorite sports. This event was UFC 104. Every month for the sport of mixed martial arts the UFC (ultimate fighting championship) holds a pay per view event in which some of its top fighters battle. These events usually include one title fight which this one did have. Of course I had to see this so I decided to go to Buffalo Wild Wings and watch the pay per view for free on their big screen TVs.
At UFC 104 the main event and title fight was Mauricio Shogun Rua fighting against light heavyweight champion Lyoto the Dragon Machida. This fight is absolutely huge for the sport because both these fighters are very difficult opponents and it was very hard to decide which fighter would win.
Actually time out I am going to watch some Monday night football. Okay the Redskins still suck.
Machida is one of the greatest UFC fighters right now. He is so technically strong and one of the best strikers in the sport. Machida uses his powerful karate and jiu-jitsu in his fights and it has lead him to the belt. Machida is one of the best strikers but he has an awkward style. What is different about Machida is he is not a forward striker he usually waits and takes advantage of the other fighter’s aggressiveness by using strong counter strikes.
Machida went into this fight undefeated and the newly crowned light heavyweight champion of the world. Machida just came off a devastating win over former champion Rashad Evans. In this fight Machida proved he was a fantastic striker and handed Rashad his first loss by way of knockout.
Machida’s opponent for this bout was Mauricio Shogun Rua. Shogun is another extremely stout fighter and is known for his aggressive and ruthless striking. Shogun has built his repertoire fighting in Pride which is a now defunct mixed martial arts league based in Japan. Shogun was very successful in Pride and he was the 2005 Pride grand prix champion. Although Shogun had managed to be very impressive in Pride his success had yet to transfer to the UFC. In the UFC there are some rule differences and that is usually what explains Shogun’s inability to transfer smoothly into the UFC.
Shogun had just come off a very impressive win over Chuck the Iceman Lidell who is a legend of the sport. In this fight Shogun showed the Shogun that everyone was expecting when he entered the UFC. He was electrifying and aggressive and won dominantly by TKO.
When these two fighters met Saturday night in the octagon everyone knew it was going to be a crazy fight and they were not wrong. The fight started off kind of slow but Shogun started to become more and more explosive with each strike. Shogun began to focus on striking Machida with leg kicks on the left side ribs. Shogun dominated the first round and Machida began to show bruising on his side.
As the fight went on Shogun continued to be the Shogun everyone expected and continued to work Machida’s ribs. Of course Machida did not give up and he began attacking and countering as well. Machida focused on hitting Shogun on the head every time Shogun went in for a strike and Machida also tried to use his powerful clinch to catch Shogun with hard knee strikes to the body.
This fight went on like this for the remainding rounds. It was absolutely crazy and so hard to decide who had won but it had seemed that Shogun was victorious and thus the new champion. The fight went to decision in which three judges decided the victor. In a championship fight the fight is 5 rounds which are 5 minutes each so it was impressive that it went the distance.
Of course the decision was split but shockingly the judges decided that Machida won. Fans at the Staple Center went crazy and booed and threw things at the ring. This was a very poor decision and everyone was appalled. Even Dana White, the president of the UFC, went up to Shogun and said “you won that fight.” People in Buffalo Wild Wings where going crazy and cursing some were even chanting “Shogun!” as if he could hear them.
This was very disappointing because I had really though Shogun would have won that fight. He is probably one of my favorite fighters and I expected him to win so seeing him lose was disappointing especially because he could have become the champion. I am pretty sure because of the controversial decision Dana White will more than likely schedule a rematch between these two incredible fighters.
The other fights on this card where also pretty good but clearly could not compare to the main event. The other impressive fight on the card was that between Ben Rothwell and Cain Velasquez. Cain Velasquez was undefeated coming into this fight and was thought to be a possible contender for Brock Lesnar in the heavyweight division. Velasquez dominated the fight and was quick to take Rothwell down. This was very advantageous to Velasquez because he has a very powerful ground and pound game and he sure used it. Velasquez would take a dominate position on Rothwell such as half guard and he would just pound his head in. eventually in the second round the referee had to stop the fight and thus Velasquez won by TKO. This sets up a great opportunity for a great fighter. Because Velasquez won this fight he could now be next in line for Brock Lesnar. Brock Lesnar is the current champion but he is really not that skilled of a fighter. He just uses his size advantage to take advantage of smaller fighters and dominate them physicaly. Brock Lesnar is actually a really bad face for the sport and he is giving the UFC a bad name. Brock is overly confident and disrespectful to other fighters which are not the real nature of the sport. So hopefully Velasquez who is very prideful can take his belt and get Lesnar out of the spot light.