Is the Rua/Machida decision the biggest screw job in mainstream MMA history

Kimura · 10-25-2009, 07:20 PM

Machida was a 4 to 1 favourite I believe.

The UFC spent alot money promoting Machida and it would have sucked if he had dropped the belt after only one fight, still, I doubt the UFC can control the judging.

Crest Fall · 10-25-2009, 07:23 PM

Certainly the biggest one I've seen. Like Big Papa I don't think it was necessarily a screwjob (though it wouldn't surprise me if it was), I just think the judges were asleep during half the fight.

Hell, even if they dozed off for half the fight Shogun STILL would have won lol.

Bigpapa42 · 10-25-2009, 07:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Roberto
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Machida was a 4 to 1 favourite I believe.

The UFC spent alot money promoting Machida and it would have sucked if he had dropped the belt after only one fight, still, I doubt the UFC can control the judging.

Yeah, the promoted the hell out of him. But they also hyped Shogun quite a bit, so that wouldn't be a complete loss. And having another LHW champion fail to defend at least once could be written off to "deepest division". The damage from having such an iffy decision that takes legitimacy away from the champion is far worse than the benefit of keeping Machida as champion, I believe.

And no, the UFC cannot control the judges. That's all up to the state athletic commissions.

Suffy · 10-25-2009, 10:58 PM

The reason I think that the judges may have though Machida won is all the hype over his elusiveness. They probably got caught up in the hype thinking that those hard hard hard strikes Shogun was landing weren't that effective bc of past Machida fights.

Dmac · 10-26-2009, 01:56 PM

Yeah but you could how red raw the areas that the kick were landing were.

It was obvious that they were having an effect.

Bigpapa42 · 10-26-2009, 01:59 PM

It wasn't hard to tell that Machida was in pain. He was also moving at half-speed by the 4th round, and it wasn't just exhaustion.

Suffy · 10-26-2009, 06:16 PM

Everyone I have determined what happened.

Now a little back story.

We have seen numerous times in the past that Cecil Peoples is an inept Judge, scoring the fights the opposite of what one would deem common sense.

Now it's clear what happened, he managed to clone himself not once but twice!

That means there are three Cecil Peoples out there and by the outcome of the Machida - Shogun fight three Cecil Peoples were judging the fight. MMA as we know it is doomed
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James Deuce · 10-26-2009, 06:29 PM

Cecil response to the criticism

Quote:

"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 Lyotos diverse attack in the earlier rounds which is why I scored the first three rounds for Machida."

I have zero issue with that explanation. Judges in boxing differ on their philosophy as well. It's the old volume versus precision argument. That said, I disagree that Machida landed the cleaner strikes in the first round but Peoples is entitled to his own opinion.

"You have to keep in mind we always the favor the fighter who is trying to finish the fight, and leg kicks certainly don't do that."

See now there might be a problem with that statement. It sounds like Peoples believes that head strikes are the only to finish the fight. So does that means all leg and body strikes can't lead to a finish?

"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."

This could be another issue. Do counterstrikers generally get the nod in Peoples' opinion.

"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 favor, where as unsuccessful 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."

That's a nice shot at the end, "fans who UNDERSTAND the technicalities." He can take a shot at the fans but the media support for Rua was pretty overwhelming:

Cagewriter: 48-47 Rua
Kevin Iole, Yahoo!: 48-47 Rua
Dave Doyle, Yahoo!: 48-47 Rua
Dave Meltzer, Yahoo!: 49-46 Rua
BloodyElbow: 48-47 Rua
USAToday: 48-47 Rua
ESPN: 49-46 Rua
CagePotato: 49-46 Rua
MMAJunkie : 49-46 or 48-47 Rua
MMAMania : 50-45 Rua
ProMMA.Info: 50-45 Rua
Adam Hill, Las Vegas Review-Journal: 48-47 Machida

Bigpapa42 · 10-26-2009, 06:45 PM

I love People's justification... "Leg kicks don't end fights", yet takedown defense apparently wins you fights...? I cannot understand how Machida was doing more to end the fight in those first few rounds or was inflicting more damage? You could clearly see the damage of the body shots on Machida accumulating by the third round, yet those weren't "causing damage"?

Suffy · 10-26-2009, 07:11 PM

Also us fans espicially those watching it on TV have the benefit of instant replay in between rounds or if you are someone like me you can rewind as you watch the fight to re-watch a combo.

So yea the judges may be closer but I have 50 different angles, instant replay, and slow mo...I think I win in terms of viewing.

Is the Rua/Machida decision the biggest screw job in mainstream MMA history

This is a discussion on Is the Rua/Machida decision the biggest screw job in mainstream MMA history within the MMA - Mixed Martial Arts forums, part of the Sports Forums category; Machida was a 4 to 1 favourite I believe. The UFC spent alot money promoting Machida and it would have ...