In the wake of yet another solid, if not spectacular, night of fights provided by the UFC, every fan who watched the action is left talking about one thing -- the decision in the main event.
The decision that literally stole a win -- and thus the Light Heavyweight Championship -- from the challenger Mauricio "Shogun" Rua. There is no doubt that on a night when Rua returned to the form he showed on his way to winning the Pride Open Weight Grand Prix and being labeled as the best 205 lb fighter in the World, he should've walked away in glory rather than having to explain away a loss that he didn't rightfully deserve.
Make no mistake about it, this was highway robbery in a city that has seen more than its fair share. You can watch the fight yourself or just go to any MMA website like Sherdog, ESPN, Bloody Elbow, Yahoo, MMA Junkie, etc. that scores the fights and get the same opinion: Rua defeated Lyoto Machida by unanimous decision 49-46.
An outcome like this already has the MMA blogging community in an uproar. Many fans want something to be done. People are clamoring for a rematch as they rightly should. In the post fight press conference, Dana White did everything but schedule a date for one, so it will happen and soon. A rematch seems a little too little, too late as far as a reward to "Shogun" is concerned. In this writer's opinion, Rua won this fight fair and square so to have to go out and beat Machida again to get what is already rightfully his seems like a waste of time and energy. Nothing short of White coming out and renouncing the decision and stripping Machida of his belt and handing it over to Rua would make most fans today happy.
More discussion will be had about the scoring in MMA after perhaps the most controversial decision in MMA history was handed out last night. The fact that all three judges gave Machida the fight 48-47 when it was so clearly the other way around will have people talking about reforming a system that is somewhat vague.
I don't think that is what needs to be done here. All sports have the element of human error and MMA is no different. All that can be done is the best that the officials have to offer.
It's just a real shame that a fighter was robbed of a championship belt. What would have been his first title victory in his career.
More to come on this event later. I will breakdown all the major winners of UFC 104 and their performances, where they go from here, etc.
UFC 104 bonuses; Knockout of the Night: Pat Barry Submission of the Night: Stefan Struve Fight of the Night: Pat Barry vs. Antoni Hardonk
Each fighter takes home an additional $60,000 for their award.
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