Lyoto Machida’s unanimous decision victory over Mauricio “Shogun” Rua at UFC 104 last weekend left baffled expressions on the vast majority who watched the light heavyweight title slip through the hands of the former PRIDE knockout king.
Joe Rogan and Mike Goldberg called the action and were ecstatic about the performance Rua was putting forth after entering the fight a heavy underdog. And who’s to blame them for their excitement. Rua was the first man to ever take one round from Machida, let alone two (and it looked like it very well could have been three).
However, Rua did not win the fight, and fans were outraged. The fact that Rogan clearly was bringing up the name “Shogun” more often than Machida has now turned him into a target on the world wide web.
Earlier today on Twitter, Rogan left a message for those who were complaining about his commentary for the light heavyweight championship last Sat.
“folks complaining about my commentary saying that Machida clearly won I’ve got 2 links for you: http://bit.ly/4trAfJ http://bit.ly/2kQVrZ.”
The two links were shortened by Twitter, but the first is a link to fightmetrics.com, showing that according to their statistical analysis Lyoto Machida should have lost to Mauricio Rua.
The second link creates a sarcastic humor that Rogan seems to be a professional at. The link will take you to Lenscraft.com. The suggestion is clear.
And the suggestion is well warranted.
Rogan followed that message up with another regarding the UFC 104 main event.
“For the record, I’m a HUGE Machida fan, but I thought Shogun won that fight. Majority of fans online agree with me, but for a few rude f***s.”
Rogan may have been screaming “Shogun” throughout the majority of the fight, but just because Machida won does not mean Rogan was wrong in how he called the fight. An interesting fellow on Twitter made a homosexual reference about Rogan and Rua, to which Joe replied in a fantastic manner that I will not be including in this article. The sad part is that people are actually coming after Rogan for the way he commentated that fight.
The fact of the matter is that Rogan is a fantastic commentator for the sport. For the people that know him for more than the “Fear Factor guy”, he is a brown belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu under Eddie Bravo, along with having a black belt in Tae Kwon Do.
Basically, the guy knows his stuff.
Perhaps Rogan was giving Rua too much credit, but that is only a result of the fact that “Shogun” didn’t receive much of a shot at winning in the eyes of most. That being said, Rogan, like all of those watching, was caught up in the moment. Nothing more, nothing less. Attacking Rogan about his commentary that evening is a crime. He merely thought Rua was winning a fight he was never supposed to.
Rogan’s excitement that night was as warranted as the fans disappointment in the decision. Gunning after Rogan concerning this matter is just an immature response to an unfortunate decision in a UFC title fight.
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Well, LIVE TV commentary isn’t exactly an analysis, it’s just some guy who has the ability to talk all night long and repeat himself without feeling stupid. especially the ufc commentary is sometimes distracting from the fight as it also acts as a ’show enhancer’ for them – which works well by the way, it does add to the fight atmosphere.
but in the end, the commentator is just a guy watching the fight and giving you his instant opinion about everything that happens.
it’s true, it LOOKED like shogun won. to me too, and i watched the fight with commentary turned off. but the refs who spoke out did have a point. it was a close fight with one round that could have gone either way; not some insane robbery. rua didn’t dominate machida, take him down or get him into serious trouble even once.
‘looking like the more aggressive fighter’ probably isn’t enough if you want to win a championship fight.
Yes, the commentary seemed very bias towards shogun. I watched the fight a second time to see that for every leg kick shogun landed, Machida had a counter shot that Rogan never mentioned. Rogan is kind of a leg kick nut. But how do the judges score a leg or body kick compared to a tecnical counter to the head? Machida clearly won round 3, and I would give 4 to shogun. Rounds 1,2 and 5 are tough to call and not knowing how the judges score certain strikes, could go either way. I don’t think shogun did enough to strip the belt from machida.