MACHIDA RETAINS TITLE

I haven't seen the live coverage so I have to wait another day for the replay which was shown on studio 23 at about 12 midnight. I was anticipating this fight for days now, being that Lyoto Machida has never been defeated going up against Mauricio "Shogun" Rua who was impressive in his last two fights.

At the start of the fight you can just see how prepared Shogun was against Machida's counters, and it was the first time that Machida have been dominated at a round. During the course of the fight Shogun was patient, waiting for the right time to attack with his powerful kicks, unlike past opponents of Machida who would just storm at Machida and receive powerful counters from the champ. Shogun was very tactical, he concentrated more on kicks to Machida body and legs and rarely attempted to take down the champ.

At the end of the fight Machida has a bloody mouth, bruised ribs and maybe have injured his legs cause looking at the fight the quickness of his legs weren't there.

Then came the announcement of the winner. The 3 judges scored it 48-47 for Machida winning it via a unanimous decision. Fans booed the result, I too was disappointed of the result.

After the bout, Machida refused to say whether or not he agreed with the decision, just noting that all three referees saw it that way.

But was ask another question if he would like to give a rematch for Shogun.

"Whenever he wants, I'll try again," Machida said about the prospect of a rematch. "No problem."

I hope there would be a rematch.