PhotoCred: Zimbio
First Fight View: Lyoto Machida defends crown vs. Mauricio “Shogun” Rua
On October 24, 2009, the UFC light heavyweight title was on the line. In the main event of UFC 104, we saw two Brazilian icons do battle. For the undefeated karate master in Lyoto Machida, he was making his very first title defense of the belt he had won earlier in the year. Standing in his way, none other than the legendary PRIDE FC veteran, Mauricio “Shogun” Rua.
Rather than being remembered for the great technical battle that this fight was, it was immediately overshadowed by controversy. In the end, Machida was awarded the unanimous decision win as he earned 48-47 scorecards across the board. The Lyoto Machida era lived on … briefly.
“Shogun” received his instant rematch despite being the loser of the championship fight. It would be there that he got redemption and knocked out his adversary in the opening round.
The term “robbery” is thrown around ever so loosely in Mixed Martial Arts, and after watching this fight for the first time, it seems that that was still the case 11 years ago. The fight was extremely close and very entertaining. In honor of the recent title bout between Jon Jones vs. Dominick Reyes at UFC 247, this seemed like the perfect fight to kick off this new series with.
This is First Fight View with Drake Riggs. The video series where we go back and watch some of MMA’s most controversial decisions … for the very first time! I will be watching the fights in their entirety and providing commentary throughout as I score the rounds as they happen. And although the majority of these bouts will likely be under the old version of the unified rules of MMA, scores under both sets of the new and old will be tallied to maximize perspective. The global ruleset is also thrown in just for a little bit of extra fun.
Check it out in the full video above.
