Is this how you describe and scored round 1?? Round 1 Shogun lands a left hook that makes Machida grimace. The champion goes to the Thai plum, where he lands several knees to the body. Shogun charges forward and clinches with his foe against the fencing. The fighters separate and Machida blasts Rua with a left kick to the body. Machida lands a hard knee to the body and Shogun dives in for a takedown. Machida easily defends and then slips away from a Rua head-kick attempt. This fight provides an interesting visual: Machida with his traditional karate stance, and Shogun with a rigid Thai stance. Shogun lands a hard low kick and Machida answers with a kick to the body. The first round is an interesting and close chess match. Jordan Breen scores the round 10-9 Machida Brian Knapp scores the round 10-9 Rua Mike Fridley scores the round 10-9 Rua atsch
check out their third round scoring...but watch the biggest exchange of the fight on replay first and then check out what Shitdog said, "Rua won the exchange hurting Machida with the right" These mofos are blind
Glad you two guys are here to restore some balance to this ridiculous night in the ESB MMA forum - the night Shogun was robbed, and Machida was EXPOSED as the OVERRATED fighter we always knew he was
it was a close round and maybe Rua being more active was edging it at the time, but for the life of me when that big exchange occured (and I swear it was caught on film)...well, just go rewatch it
"Both men wore marks in the third, their chiselled torsos reddened from brutal kicks. Machida rushed Rua towards the end of the round, punishing him at the fence but Rua survived the onslaught." from the Canadian press
Do I think Rua won..yes...is Machida over rated?? NO. Look at his list of fighters he has beaten..so too say he was Exposed is silly. The man fought a guy in Rua that at one time was one of the best around. Tonight we seen why Many thought that of Rua.
Every remotely credible press organization had Shogun winning, all pro fighters I've heard comment had Shogun winning, Dana had Shogun winning. The only people in the world who actually had Machida winning were 3 idiot NSAC judges. http://fightmetric.com/fights/Machida-Shogun.html 4 rounds minimum, clear as day for Shogun. There was a reason Machida couldn't explode, there was a reason he kept changing stances, it was because he was getting the **** kicked out of his body and legs, and getting knocked in the head far harder than anything he landed going the other way.
I scored it 4-1, but had the benefit of watching it on television. When you're at cageside, it is sometimes difficult to get a clear view at all of the action. A good scoring blow during the first round was a quick hook to the head by Rua. That shot may have gone unnoticed from a few angles. Then there was the quickness of some of Rua's leg kicks. There were a couple of times people that were watching it with me asked if Machida just landed a cross, because they saw action and heard a sound. In both those instances, Rua had landed a leg kick when Machida was throwing a punch. I could see where the judges may have misjudged a round, but don't know where they found 3 rounds to give to Machida. 3-2 for Shogun would not have been a crime.
