UFC 104 - Did Rua got robbed?

So did Shogun got robbed in the main event????

Quite frankly at first I was pretty sure he won the fight and was pissed that the judges gave the fight to Machida. Even thou I thought Machida would win I really liked both fighters and felt that Shogun won fair and square and was pissed at the judges. Anyhow, after all it was a tough fight to score and I've learned that hearing the commentators talk better about a fighter can fog the eyes of the viewer in favor of the one they are talking about. So I decided to watch it again without bias eyes.I was pretty surprise to see that it may not be a bad call by the judges after all. The thing is that we are not used to see Machida getting hit so often and so hard and everyone thought that even thou Shogun was tough he wasn't gonna be the one that could solve the Machida puzzle. So when we see someone doing so good and was the underdog its even harder to score each round, but we automatically root for the underdog.
However the rounds are score in the 9-10 system and are based on: Effective striking, Grappling, Aggression and Octagon control. The key is in the first two rounds, round number one Machida won the first half with a couple of knees and kicks to the body, but Rua won the second half, it was pretty close round and if Shogun would have taken Machida down he would have won it and pretty much won the match pretty convincingly. But Machida is the champion after all, so I think he won that round (Watch the fight without commentaries).

Overall We have to give the Aggression and Octagon control to Shogun (Even thou Octagon control is debatable cause Machida was the one dictating when will they engage), but because Machida did a pretty good job on his take down defense the grappling part was on his side. Anyway on the effective striking scoring for each round, Shogun did a pretty awesome job with the kicks and body shots, specially after Machida did his spring back thing, if Rua would have missed those it was an easy unanimous decision for Lyoto (Like all his other fights).

Round 1:


However body kicks and knees score higher than leg kicks, and Machida was connecting a lot of those. The only thing is that Shogun did counter after with leg kicks of his own (which can make Lyoto's kick look less impressive), but then again, Machida was the one initiating the hit. Lyoto did counter some of the legkicks with straight left/low kick combos, but the commentators didn't mention any of that. The same thing happened with the knees. Machida hurt him a couple of times with knees, but Shogun grab him and tried a take down to counter (which can make it look as if those knees didn't hurt, but watch the replay they are pretty nasty knees).

Round 2:


So with that in mind the rounds that Shogun won he did a better job in the effective striking department, and the others Machida won, which could have been the first two and the last one, or the first 3. Also we have to note that Machida is the champion so every time there is a really close round they will give it to him. Again, if Shogun would have taken down Machida even once in the first couple of rounds or in the last one he would have won on the judges cards, but even thou he did an awesome job and impressed everyone with his performance, it wasn't enough to win 3 rounds convincingly.

Round 3:


Even thou I know feel that Lyoto won the fight fair and square (First 3 rounds), because the scoring system is flawed, I still think that Shogun did a great job (He implemented his fight plan to perfection and looked more comfortable adjusting to Machida that the other way around, and it looked the fresh fighter at the end). The rematch will be awesome.

Final Round Highlights:


EDIT: This is Judge Cecil People analysis of why he scored the fight the way he did:

The main-event of UFC 104 saw Lyoto Machida defend his Light heavyweight title by winning a unanimous decision over Shogun Rua but not without controversy as many spectators felt the scorecards reflected poorly upon the fight. Long time MMA judge and referee, Cecil Peoples provided us with his reasoning behind his issued score of 48-47 in favour of the champion, Lyoto Machida.

“First of all what you need to understand is that from where the judges are sitting, we get to see things that the fans at home may miss. Mauricio Rua was being aggressive but it wasn’t effective aggressiveness which is what we as the judges look for when scoring a fight. The way I saw it, Lyoto was landing the more cleaner and damaging strikes throughout the fight – if you take a look at the judging criteria clean strikes are valued more-so than the quantity of strikes landed. Although Rua threw a lot of low kicks they were not as damaging as Lyoto’s diverse attack in the earlier rounds which is why I scored the first three rounds for Machida. You have to keep in mind we always the favour the fighter who is trying to finish the fight, and leg kicks certainly don’t do that.”
“When both fighters are engaged in a striking match what I always look for is the fighter who is being judicious, picking his spots, being accurate and landing the cleaner strikes which ultimately is what Lyoto did more effectively than Rua. Lyoto made Shogun come after him, he determined where the fight took place which in my opinion constitutes as effective Octagon control. I recognize the fact that Rua did have a few takedown attempts during the course of the fight however Lyoto defended them all successfully which counts as effective grappling in his favour, where as ununsuccessful takedown attempts are not scored at all. Therefore going by that criteria, I believe Lyoto won the fight clearly. I’m just glad the other judges on the panel saw it the same way and I’m sure the fans who understand the technicalities of the sport agree with the decision too.”

I think I have to agree with him, and the ref's did a remarkable job in that fight. I had to watched it 3 times and see some exchanges in slowmotion to score the toughest rounds (Round 2 was the closest in my opinion).