Thaindian News

By Gina Gomez
Oct 25, (THAINDIAN NEWS) In quite an unexpected manner, Lyoto Machida defeated Mauricio Rua in a heavyweight championship at UFC 104 on Saturday. The outcome came after five intensely fought rounds whereby Machida scored his eighth consecutive win in his UFC performances at the Staples Center. The result was, however, not at all supported by the audiences in the arena who highly appreciated Rua’s impressive performance.

The initial rounds saw fierce fighting between both the contenders with both delivering their best to ensure their victory. However, things started changing in the fourth round when Shotgun Rua started taking control with innumerable punches and body shots which saw Machida unable to cope with Rua’s attack. Even in the fifth and the final round Rua continued his untamed dominance with Machida having no other option but to resort to a defensive posture. The end of the final round saw Machida bleeding and Rua celebrating with everyone present in the arena expecting that probably they would be witnessing the end to the invincibility of the seven time titleholder Michida. However, their expectations were never fulfilled as the judges unanimously declared Michida as the final champion with the scores 48-47.

The audiences however immensely enjoyed Rua’s ruthless performance and were disappointed that he was not declared the ultimate winner. Even Machida admitted that among all the contenders that he had to encounter to retain the heavyweight championship, Rua was probably the toughest. He added that he would love to encounter Rua in future for a rematch and the idea of witnessing the two heavyweights clash again would surely be welcomed by all the fans.