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NICE shiner.
Machida went from unbeatable to what seems like exposed in 2 fights..
NICE shiner.
Damn, Machida got closed up!
Not really a Shogun fan
But what a win he really got it done tonight
Machida has a really messed up eye after that shot
I think Machida was probably overly conscious about the kick threat. Got him right in the temple.
Machida vs snadandnerson
Shogun was a beast in Pride.. Had some surgeries and didn't look the same but now seems to be all the way back. Very interesting to see where he goes from here.
I think winner of Page and Shad is next in line..
Page and Shogun 2 would be cool..
Page got beat bad the first time..
UFC 113 poster off my sig
114 poster already on..
>Machida's face
ouch!!!
>machida's face
I exploded after Shogun taken Machida out !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Great victory, fantastic.
Haha Koscheck great as well with you to daley and 'you will loste to Pittsburgh'
got to go
bblater
lol Machida
"People said Rua found the way to beat me, so tell me, why didn't he win our match?"
I thought that was an odd and out of character comment from him, maybe something got mixed in translation? Didn't seem like a smart thing to say about such a close fight.
So yea...great card tonight, totally worth the money I would have spent on UFC 114
- Cote looked stronger than I anticipated, but Belcher is a hungry mofo that can take a hit.
- Mitrione chopped Kimbo's legs off, but Kimbo got released as a result.
- I would have been 5 for 5 if Stout would have leg kicked more in the 3rd round, .
- Daley pulling off the real shocker, I thought he had more class. Bragging about his girlfriends, his take down defense, and striking...the got in a clean hit after the bell and he didn't drop Kos.
- See my prediction post for comments on Shogun.
Im so happy Shogun won!
1-4 on this card
I in suck hard this season...
MONTREAL -- No one is invincible: That's the belief Mauricio "Shogun" Rua carried into the Octagon last night at UFC 113 for his rematch with light heavyweight champion Lyoto "The Dragon" Machida.
But Rua would rely on more than a deeply embedded belief as he prepared to right a perceived wrong that took place seven months ago in Los Angeles, he also possessed the key to defeating Machida.
After their first fight, Rua discovered a weakness in Machida's once impenetrable armor. Though he'd come up short previously, losing a disputed unanimous decision, Rua knew he would prevail this time around.
Rua discovered that Machida left himself open to right hands when transitioning from defense to offense.
"In my first fight with Machida, I tried to exploit the kicks a lot, and I noticed that every time he tried to attack … he was attacking, but not with his hands in the proper place -- with his face exposed," Rua told ESPN.com during the postfight news conference. "That's why I worked this time, not only on the kicks, but also on high overhand rights."
[+] EnlargeEd Mulholland for ESPN.com
By defeating Anderson Silva, Mauricio Rua joins Mark Coleman as the only fighters to win both a UFC championship and Pride Grand Prix in their careers.
Rua wasted no time attempting to exploit the hole in Machida's game. He immediately went after Machida with kicks. Then he began to deliver right and left punches, several of which landed.
The more strikes he threw, the closer Rua would get to Machida's chin. Eventually, an overhand right found its mark.
Machida would go down, and Rua made sure he did not return to his feet.
"When I connected with the overhand right, I noticed that he was already going out," said Rua, who improved to 19-4-0. "Then I took the opportunity to keep punching him on the ground until the referee [Yves Lavigne] would stop it.
"I stopped punching before the referee called the fight. When we see the opportunity, we go in for the kill, because sometimes in a fight you only have one opportunity."
Their first fight was close, with Machida winning 48-47 on all three official cards. While Machida came away with the unanimous decision, many observers disagreed with the judges' scores.
Rua was among the dissenters and vowed to give the judges a night off during the rematch. He needed just 3 minutes, 35 seconds to send everyone at Bell Centre home early.
Machida (16-1-0) did have his moments; he took Rua down twice. On each occasion, however, Rua returned to his feet quickly.
Despite those brief moments when he appeared to have control, Machida never posed a serious threat to Rua.
The majority of this short fight was dominated by Rua, and he won it convincingly.
"Beating a guy like Machida the way he did in the first round, I don't even know the words to explain it," UFC president Dana White said. "It was awesome."
White refused to say who would likely be the new champion's first opponent. He appears to be keeping all options open; even a possible Rua-Machida rubber match can't yet be completely ruled out.
The Quinton Jackson-Rashad Evans winner is the front-runner for now. Their ongoing war of words will be resolved May 29 in Las Vegas.
"I don't know," White said. "This [Machida-Rua II] was a great fight, unbelievable. Rua looked incredible.
"Now we have to see what happens in that fight [Jackson-Evans]. To answer it [Rua's next opponent] tonight, I couldn't honestly do that."
One fighter who won't get the first shot at Rua is middleweight leholder Anderson Silva. White is still fuming over the 185-pound champion's infamous outing against Demian Maia in April.
White isn't ruling out a possible battle between Rua and Silva in the not-too-distant future, but prefers Silva clean out the middleweight division first. That is something Silva might achieve within his next two fights.
Silva could find his way to the light heavyweight ranks, if he defeats Chael Sonnen -- whom he meets August 7 in Oakland, Calif. -- and Vitor Belfort.
"Anderson Silva is going to fight Chael Sonnen and then probably Vitor Belfort, then he will move up," White said. "I like to see guys clean their division out first.
"I'm still unhappy with Anderson. I want to see Anderson perform in his next fight.
"The way that Shogun performed tonight is the way the best fighters in the world should perform. That's what people are paying for. When you bought your ticket or when you bought pay-per-view, that's what you're paying for, what happened here tonight."
It happened because Rua entered the cage believing that no fighter is invincible, not even the former light heavyweight champion.
http://sports.espn.go.com/extra/mma/...ory?id=5175010
MONTREAL – There was irony in Josh Koscheck’s UFC 113 win over Paul Daley on Saturday night at the Bell Centre, one that set up Koscheck for a le shot and cost Daley his job.
Koscheck was booed by the crowd of 17,647 fans, who wanted to see a grudge match end with wild punches and a knockout. Instead, they got what was almost a duplicate of the March 27 fight in Newark, N.J., where welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre won a decision over England’s Dan Hardy by using an effective but not particularly exciting style of ground control.
Josh Koscheck earned a le shot by holding down Paul Daley for a 30-27 decision at UFC 113.
Like St. Pierre against Hardy, Koscheck (17-4) took Daley (23-9-2), perhaps the most explosive welterweight striker, down to the ground and controlled him for most of three straight rounds, winning a straight 30-27 decision. The win was by far the biggest of Koscheck’s career.
The fight was to not only determine who would coach against St. Pierre on the next season of “The Ultimate Fighter” reality show, which starts filming in a few weeks, but also who would get the next crack at St. Pierre’s le in December.
The irony was that the longer the fight went, the more the pro-Daley crowd was upset, even though it was held before a Canadian fan base and with Koscheck using the style that has led to St. Pierre becoming one of the country’s most popular athletes.
The coincidence wasn’t lost on Koscheck.
“I executed the game plan to a T,” said Koscheck, who had told people he would going to stand with Daley only to shoot and take him down at the first opportunity. “I was doing my coaches’ game plan: that was to be a wrestler and win the match with wrestling.”
Even more frustrated than the crowd, though, was Daley. Koscheck admitted trash talking in Daley’s ear late in the fight, but he wouldn’t divulge the details. Whatever it was, it made the British fighter even more furious.
After the fight was over, Daley started jawing back and then hit Koscheck with a postfight sucker punch, the likes of which haven’t been seen in the UFC cage in recent memory.
Koscheck said that Daley, unable to get off the bottom position, also tried gouging his eyes late in the fight.
The result was that Daley (23-9-2) became only the second person fired by UFC president Dana White for poor sportsmanship inside the cage. In 2007, Renato “Babalu” Sobral was cut after a win over David Heath because he wouldn’t release a choke hold after Heath had passed out.
“He’s done,” White said of Daley. “He will never be back. I don’t care if he goes all over the world, goes on a winning streak, becomes the best 170-pound fighter in the world or even the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world, he’s never fighting in the UFC again.”
Referee Dan Miragliotta had to grab Daley and hold him against the cage because he still wanted to go after Koscheck. White then entered the cage and started yelling at Daley. White said he fired Daley for the sucker punch, but he was clearly even more annoyed when he asked Daley why he did it. White felt Daley insulted his intelligence with his answer.
“He said he didn’t know the fight was over,” said White. The fight’s various controversies started in the first round. After Koscheck controlled Daley on the ground for several minutes, Daley finally got to his feet and went for a kick to Koscheck when he was down, which is illegal.
Well, if the kick landed it would have been illegal. Koscheck grabbed his left eye writhing in pain like he had been injured by the blow, although replays showed that it was hard to see exactly what landed.
“I think it was a knee in the eye,” said Koscheck, who had a cut next to the eye. “I don’t know if it was a knee or a punch [which would have been legal].”
The crowd, believing Koscheck may have played up the injury for more than it was worth, resulting in a timeout and respite, started chanting obscenities after the replay was shown in the arena. The chants got louder and more obscene as the fight went on.
During the second round, after Koscheck scored his first takedown, he kept Daley grounded the entire round. Having clearly won the first two rounds, early in the third round Koscheck danced backward and put the fight into almost a stall defense as Daley came forward before shooting in and taking him to the ground. Koscheck kept Daley there, staying just busy enough with punches to prevent a standup.
The win means Koscheck’s career has come full circle.
Five years ago, a few weeks into the first season of “The Ultimate Fighter,” Koscheck sprayed a hose on Chris Leben, which led to a Leben meltdown. Their match a week later drew 2.5 million viewers, putting the show – and the UFC itself – on the pop-culture map. The Koscheck-Leben match held the record for the highest-rated episode in the history of the show until Kimbo Slice showed up in 2009.
The incident established Koscheck as the company’s biggest villain, a role he didn’t particularly want. But when it was thrust on him, it’s a role he hasn’t exactly run away from.
After Saturday’s fight was over, Koscheck, booed as much as any UFC fighter in recent years with the exception of heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar, told the crowd that the Pittsburgh Penguins would be beating the Montreal Canadiens in their NHL playoff series and that Montreal would lose twice since he was going to beat St. Pierre.
Koscheck, who grew up in Pennsylvania and was the 2001 NCAA Division I wrestling champion at Edinboro College, going 43-0-1, said the interview was done in response for the crowd’s reaction to him. He said he was not aware at the time that the Penguins had won the game that ended earlier that evening. He joked that he didn’t want the le fight in Montreal, but said he wanted it in Pittsburgh.
St. Pierre and Koscheck have fought once before, on Aug. 25, 2007, in Las Vegas, between St. Pierre’s two championship reigns.
St Pierre won by unanimous decision, but Koscheck won the first round, making him the last fighter to win a round against the current champion.
“I think I underestimated Georges’ wrestling,” said Koscheck about the first fight. “This time, I’m going to be prepared when it comes to wrestling. I’ll be bringing in Olympic wrestlers to camp. I’ll be ready this time.”
‘Shogun’ handles Machida to cap resurgence
By Kevin Iole, Yahoo! Sports
MONTREAL – Less than a year ago, Lyoto Machida looked virtually unbeatable and appeared to be on the start of a long and dominant reign as the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s light heavyweight champion.
He had a seemingly impregnable defense and was adding powerful striking and a varied offense to it with each passing day.
At the same time, Mauricio “Shogun” Rua was still a man with a lot to prove. He was coming off a devastating first-round knockout of Chuck Liddell at UFC 97, but he didn’t receive a lot of credit for it because most assumed that the then-39-year-old Liddell had reached the end of the line.
Rua even had to take criticism for his win before that, a Fight of the Night victory over Mark Coleman at UFC 93 when he lost his conditioning in the final round.
But now, it is Machida searching for answers and Rua who sits atop the UFC’s most talented division.
Rua knocked out Machida to win light heavyweight le in their heavily hyped rematch Saturday in front of 17,647 boisterous fans at the Bell Centre, ending the controversy that began after their first fight in October.
The challenger hit Machida with an overhand right to start the finishing sequence, but the telling blow was a hammering right from the top position on a prone Machida that immediately closed Machida’s eye and ended his le reign.
Rua knew Machida had had enough and quit punching seconds before referee Yves Lavigne jumped in to stop the fight at 3:35 of the first round.
“He made my job a lot easier,” Lavigne said.
The win came on the heels of a highly controversial loss to Machida at UFC 104 in October, a bout in which UFC president Dana White, most of the media and a large percentage of the sport’s fans felt Rua had won. The three judges, though, gave the decision to Machida.
But Rua made an adjustment after watching tape of the first fight, noticing that Machida would drop his hands while being kicked.
“In my first fight against Machida, I tried to exploit the kicks a lot,” Rua said. “I noticed that every time he would try to attack by timing my kicks, he was attacking but without his guard in the proper place. He attacked with his face exposed.
“This time, I worked a lot not only on the kicks, but also on a high overhand right punch to surprise him as he was trying to move in from my kicks.”
Rua had every reason to gloat after the win, but he was humble and classy. He was heavily criticized since entering the UFC for not living up to the high expectations that had been placed upon him.
He had earned a reputation in the PRIDE Fighting Championship, where he had beaten the likes of Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira and Alistair Overeem, as one of the elite 205-pounders in the world.
But he gassed in a match against Forrest Griffin at UFC 76 in 2007 and was submitted, then he stumbled around the ring against the veteran Coleman at UFC 93. He still won against Coleman, but that was hardly a stirring performance.
Rua, though, had a legitimate excuse. He tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left leg during his training camp with Griffin but went through with the fight anyway. He then tore the same ligament again in 2008 while training for a fight in London against Liddell.
He underwent a second surgery and had a cadaver’s ligament inserted in his knee. Rua took a beating in the media, but was classy and never lashed out.
“The toughest times that a fighter can face are the injury times,” Rua said. “Injuries are the worst thing that can happen to a fighter’s career, so the worst times of my life were after those knee surgeries … because it was very tough and people were criticizing me a lot.
“I work so hard, and when I was going through that criticism, I tried to think that someone had to pay the bill. Someone had to pay for what I was going through and I tried to do that in my fights and pay it back when I’m fighting.”
His win opened a whole series of delicious possibilities, though White was not of a mind to discuss them Saturday.
White ruled out a le fight, at least immediately, against middleweight champion Anderson Silva. He said Silva has to face Chael Sonnen next and, if he wins, Vitor Belfort. At that point, White said, he’d consider allowing Silva to move to light heavyweight.
“I’m still unhappy with Anderson” for his strange performance at UFC 112, White said. “The way that Shogun performed, that’s what people are paying for. If you bought a ticket or you bought the pay-per-view, that’s what people are paying to see.”
Two former light heavyweight champions, Jackson and Rashad Evans, meet later in the month at UFC 114, but White wouldn’t concede that either of them would get the next shot. And there’s always the prospect of a rubber match with Machida, who suffered his first defeat after 16 wins on Saturday.
Rua, who debunked an ESPN report that was broadcast prior to the fight that he had injured his left knee again as “completely not true,” said he never gave up on achieving his dream despite the hard time.
“Shogun” said he turned the corner when he bought an octagon for his gym in Brazil. The punching angles change from a ring, which was used in PRIDE, to a cage, which is used in the UFC.
Healthy and trained properly, a calm and motivated Rua was magnificent. But he didn’t feel pressure to perform as if the bout was a last-chance opportunity.
“Every time I am about to fight, people say to me, ‘How come you are so relaxed? It seems like you are going to a chess match instead of a fight,’ ” Rua said. “But I never put pressure on myself to win. I put pressure on myself only to do my best. This is my obligation.”
It was an obligation he handled well. His best was plenty good and left a guy who was almost never hit by anyone else battered, swollen and decisively beaten.
“Shogun proved that the first time maybe everybody was right with the scoring,” White said. “To go out and KO Lyoto Machida in the first round the way he did, to call that impressive is stupid. It was incredible, unbelievable.”
It was incredible, unbelievable and impressive.
And you know what else?
It was well-deserved.
why doesn't dana white just make anderson fight shogun sonnen
Man ing great fight. Naturally dont like machida that much because he always looks like hes about to cry. And ofcousre, shogun is probably my overall favorite. Good night!
You want him to fight Shogun and Sonnen?
Anderson couldn't finish Maia, who stepped in on short notice and really wasn't a #1 Contender...Shogun just brutalized the most elusive fighter in MMA.
It's not fair, Anderson needs to earn everything like everyone else. Chael will fight him, and if Dana is smart the winner of Belcher/Vitor will fight him...then we'll see if Shogun defended against the Rampage/Evans fights...then Anderson can fight Shogun.
If Page beats Shad decisively
Page will get next shot for sure..
Rua decided that he was going to have that le. That was a show of pure iron will.
Winner of Rampage/Evans gets the next shot. I don't know that either of them can take Shogun. After that, Rua will probably fight Silva (there's something to look forward to). Maybe we'll also see the Machida/Griffin fight that got cancelled the first time.
Kos/Daley held shades of the Kos/Johnson fight. Kos is a cheating piece of trash. I believe mma rules hold that the ref can deduct a point from a fighter for faking an illegal injury - going to have to look that up.
The fight is stopped at the moment so why not check out the tape quick.
I'm for it.
It was tough to see though.
But I preferred Koscheck to win this.
Rua did it and I was all woooohooo after he finished Machida. And I was at work. Good that nobody was close.
Rampage probably will win and we will have a rematch Shogun vs Rampage and I think Rua could kick out of Quinton. Shad would use his wrestling though.
A matchup between Rua and Silva would be great. We got to see what will Sonnen do and then probably Belford and middleweight is then clean IMO
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