A judge speaks up about why Lyoto Machida won

The Lyoto Machida-Mauricio “Shogun” Rua controversy won’t go away and it shouldn’t. The UFC light heavyweight champ’s unanimous-decision win is an embarrassment to the UFC and to the sport of mixed martial arts, a black eye that neither can sorely afford.

Now, one of the three judges who scored the UFC 104 title bout is explaining how he saw the fight. Judges Cecil Peoples and Marcos Rosales both awarded Machida the first three rounds and gave Rua the final two; judge Nelson “Doc” Hamilton scored rounds one and five for Rua, but gave Machida the middle rounds; scores were united at 48-47 in Machida’s favour. Here’s what Peoples told Five Ounces of Pain (via CageReport.com):

“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 (sic) 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 favor 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 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.”

Suddenly, I understand why Rua lost the fight. Because there are idiots like Peoples judging UFC fights. Peoples was also one of the two judges who scored a split decision in favour of Michael Bisping over Mat Hamill at UFC 75, which was the worst judging decision in the UFC until last weekend.

I’ve now watched the Machida-Shogun bout a few times – obviously seeing it more than once and with slow-motion replays makes judging the outcome easier than sitting cageside but it’s the judges’ job to make the right call the first time – and my opinion has not changed. Shogun Rua won the fight. It was close, razor-thin close, but Rua clearly won.

Peoples says Rua didn’t demonstrate “effective aggressiveness,” even though he kept pressing the attack and forced Machida’s back against the cage throughout four of the five rounds. It’s hard to understand how forcing your opponent to always back away is not “effective aggressiveness.” Even when Machida did attack, Rua weathered the flurry and immediately fired back and rarely retreated.

Now, Peoples would say that all the backpedaling and covering up was really Machida making Shogun chase him and that he wanted the fight to take place along the cage, which Peoples says “constitutes as effective Octagon control.” Yes, Machida did slip away along the cage – he is the most-elusive fighter in MMA, after all – but he certainly wasn’t in control of anything and he wasn’t luring Rua into any kind of trap. Although I suppose because it’s Machida – the most-elusive fighter in MMA, in case you’ve forgotten – he’s given the benefit of the doubt that there obviously must be some grand master plan behind all his retreating.

Regardless, it was Rua in the centre of the Octagon, controlling the space, determining when to attack and when to remain patient. It was Rua who was the hunter, Machida the prey. It was like watching an Animal Planet documentary on the cobra and the mongoose.

Finally, Peoples says that Machida landed the cleaner strikes that did more damage – absolutely untrue, as the replays show that many of Machida’s so-called clean, damaging strikes were deflected or glanced off arms or were easily absorbed or just plain missed (by the narrowest margin, perhaps, but they still missed). And then Peoples says something that is one of the dumbest things any judge has ever said: leg kicks don’t finish fights.

Brandon Vera finished Mike Pratt with leg kicks at UFC 96. Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic finished Yoshida Hidehiko and Hong Man Choi with leg kicks. Forrest Griffin won the light heavyweight belt in large part because of the damaging leg kicks he landed on Quinton “Rampage” Jackson that left Rampage hobbling around the cage, and Keith Jardine utilized devastating leg kicks to upset Chuck Liddell. I’d even argue that leg kicks are what beat Matt Hughes the second time he faced Georges St. Pierre (if you recall, GSP, who was landing leg kicks effectively, faked a low kick that Hughes leaned down to catch and GSP hit him with a head kick that led directly to the TKO).

Sure, a TKO from leg kicks is rare, a KO unimaginable. But their primary purpose isn’t to end fights but to soften up an opponent, limit their mobility, their ability to strike with power, leaving them open to attack. Rua’s bombardment of leg strikes was tactical brilliance. Machida wasn’t able to get off and by the second round he was switching his stance, presumably to limit the damage taken by his lead leg, which opened him to body and head strikes and the clinch.

But that doesn’t matter to Peoples. None of Rua’s 49 leg kicks (to Machida’s four) were worth throwing and I’m sure Machida didn’t spend all day Sunday with his legs encased in ice. And his ribs and face, too, for that matter.