The UFC Makes the Right Move with Machida-Shogun 2

It is often said that justice is hard to find, and while most people are talking about loftier issues than whether a fly ball is called fair after landing in foul territory (or whether the judges of a fight botched a decision), it is always good to see justice be served in the world of MMA.  Such is the case with the “immediate rematch” that Dana White confirmed between two of the best fighters of their generation, Lyoto Machida and Mauricio “Shogun” Rua.

Sure, it is hard to say with any certainty that anyone was “robbed” on Saturday night (despite what many have said), as the fight was ridiculously close.  Still, such a close result insists upon a sequel, as neither fighter can truly move on until this matter is decisively settled.  Certainly Machida can’t just go to the next challenger, as if he had dispatched Shogun and finished that particular issue for good.  At the same point, it would not seem right to throw Shogun back into the contender’s pool to one an arbitrary fight or two before the highly anticipated rematch.  After all, even if you believe Machida won, Shogun certainly was the first fighter to make “The Dragon” seem even vaguely human.

I suppose that normally, this is where I would join the fray and boldly state that one fighter or the other won the fight indisputably, before launching into a rant regarding the poorly-suited ten point must system for MMA, the ill-conceived judging criteria or the general ineptitude of the judges themselves, but I’ll forego that rather tired commentary for the time being.  I do put myself firmly in the camp that believes that Shogun won the fight, and also that he was the only fighter to clearly win any round within the fight.  Suffice to say that I’m surprised that two judges would give all three of the initial razor-thin rounds to Machida, and shocked that a third judge gave rounds one and five (but not four, which Shogun definitively won) to Rua.

I do want to point out a couple of things, though.  In the judges’ defense, if you have to go on to your MMA forum of choice armed with several viewings of the fight on slow motion and an armful of stats from FightMetric to prove conclusively that the decision was in error, you have not proved a whole lot.  I should not have to point out that the judges do not have the option to slow down or rewind portions of the fight to make sure that they “got it right”, nor do they have access to robust round-by-round statistics to reaffirm which shots landed cleanly and which ones did not.

If you were surprised, as I was, at the discrepancy in strikes landed between the two fighters once you saw the FightMetric stats, that only further proves how hard it is to correctly judge an MMA fight.  Many times, when Machida would come forward with a quick flurry, as when he had Shogun pinned against the cage briefly, it is difficult to see how many shots are truly landing cleanly.  Indeed, we have seen in many MMA fights before that regardless of the damage done, throwing a half dozen quick punches, whether blocked or not, definitely is a way to “score points”.

Still, only the fighters and judges had any effect on the outcome Saturday night, and it is good to know that those who had no part in the decision have at least taken steps to bring the story to a satisfying conclusion.  Shogun has already shown that Machida is human, even if he is still an undoubtedly remarkable specimen.  Now, he’ll get another chance to prove that he can decisively beat him.

by Jon Hartley for Fightmania.com

Tags: Dana White, Lyoto Machida, UFC