Mauricio "Shogun" Rua Claims What Is Rightfully His

 A little over 6 months ago I watched the first Shogun-Machida fight and like Dana White and a number of MMA observers thought that Shogun won that fight. However, somehow the judges scored a close decision for Machida.

 I can't imagine how frustrating it must have been for Rua,  who had to wait over six months to get another shot at Machida and the Lightweight title.

 Before the fight, both fighters talked about not letting the fight go to the judges. Machida's camp in particular, stated several times that they were not expecting the fight to go past the third round.

 During MMA live, the always awful Franklin Mcneil, actually did something worthwhile for once and reported that Shogun was not going to be entering the Octagon at 100%. According to this report from "People close to his camp." Rua had injured his knee and Mcneil reported that other fighters said he was looking a little doughy around the middle, which might have been an indication that he hadn't been able to run during his camp.

 None of that seemed to matter once both men entered the ring. After an initial feeling out period, where Shogun experimented with kicks and Machida experimented with switching his stance around, Shogun swarmed Machida, landed a high left hook that knocked "The Dragon" to the canvas where he finished him with a vicious ground and pound combo that left the former champion unconscious.

 This time there would be no doubt, no judges, no question about who the superior fighter was.

 One of the interesting subplots here is that Rua despite all of his accomplishments is still only 28 and has only been in 23 fights. Now that he's clearly back to his Pride form after his early injuries, the UFC may have a new Superstar.

 The rest of this card was entertaining if unspectacular.

 Paul Daley proved once again that wrestlers change the game , and then absolutely lost his mind and punched Koscheck after the bell. Very few people hate Koscheck more than me and the fight itself was pretty boring as Daley seemed afraid to let his hands go, and Koscheck couldn't really get anything going once he took Daley to the ground. Daley then swung at Koscheck after the bell leading Dana White to claim that Daley will never fight in the UFC again.But on the bright side Koscheck will probably talk a lot of shit about GSP during this upcoming season of TUF.

 Matt Mitrione and Kimbo Slice, fought a boring two round fight where it was obvious that Mitrione was out of shape but that Kimbo was not really prepared to go more than one round even after his time at American Top Team. To use the language of my roomate Kimbo and Mitrione simply don't have what it takes. Dana White obviously felt the same as he cut ties with Kimbo early the next morning.

 Cote and Belcher was an uninspiring fight and the hometown favorite got caught in the second round.

 Overall, the Rua-Machida fight rescued what could have been at least the second and if you count the GSP-Hardy borefest third debacle in a row at a PPV event.And furthermore, at a young age Rua is posed to make a great run as the LW champion. Plus if Rampage takes care of business against Rashad we get a remacth of one of the most epic and one sided fights in MMA history. Or they could just set up a fight between him and Anderson Silva that EVERYONE would watch.

JL