I don’t pretend to be an expert in the complex world of mixed martial arts. There are too many subtle nuances within the sport; no one should claim to understand unless they have trained for years. Anyone who has seen me knows there have not been years of training involved in any aspect of my life. All that being said, you don’t have to be an expert to know what you saw. I can’t speak to what you laid eyes on last evening, but mine saw robbery. Worse yet, robbery that is being half heartedly endorsed on the blogosphere. I think I can tell you why and how it is happening. It’s just as shitty as Shogun having no gold around his waist.
Sports fans are generally just that. One group. There are baseball fans that know more than others. Football fans that are more informed than other football fans. Basketball nerds and guys that just enjoy watching the game and so on. For the most part these groups get along with one another. That is not the case in MMA. Uninformed MMA fans are some of the worst people on the planet. These are jerkoffs drawn to the raw violence of the sport, do not appreciate its complex nature, and do everything to ruin it for everyone else around them These are people that scream “…get him in the headlock!” or better yet “…rip his arm off and beat him with it!” Both of those I heard at the last UWC fight at the Patriot center. These are the homo habilis, drunken baffoons that file into every hooters one Saturday a month in their Beatdown shirts to ruin it for everyone.
Those people annoy me, but I wear no a white wig and hold no gavel here. I know people watch NASCAR for the crashes, hockey for the fights and MMA for the blood. I’m not judging those people. I am just acknowledging they exist to set up my next point. The MMA elitists are almost as bad for the sport as the aforementioned meatheads. These are bloggers, message board nerds and their ilk that let their narcissism blind them in their support for the UFC and mixed martial arts. The first group of assholes discussed in this post are a necessary evil for this sport. It’s means the sport is growing and becoming more popular. Not all of these Affliction T-shirt wearing douches stays a douche. They learn the sport the more they watch, they appreciate the sport the more they watch and they become living, breathing, walking soundboards for the sport. They start telling their friends about it, and their friends, and their friends. That’s growth, people. That’s the goal of any business.
Some of snooty blogging sect doesn’t want that. For one reason or another they feel reluctant to expansion. To the point where they use their power of the public forum to not only speak down to fans that they deem “unworthy,” but they actually endorse shitty decisions like the one we saw last night. How, do you ask? I’d be MORE than happy to tell you.
We ALL know Shogun won the fight last night. He was more aggressive, did more damage and executed the perfect game plan against MMA’s great enigma: Lyoto Machida. For Rua’s efforts he was handed a unanimous decision for the other guy. That was crime in itself. The bigger crime was the passive aggressive defense of the judges cards by the blogs that cover the sport. The terms “truly beat the champion” and “don’t let it go to the cards” are flying around the internet. BULL SHIT. Then why have judges at all. Let the challenger know that if he doesn’t knock out or sub the champion in the allotted time, he loses. I don’t by that shit for a minute.
It is my personal opinion that some, and even most MMA bloggers are obsessed with being contrarian when it comes to the meathead MMA fans. These meatheads are the bane of the existance of the bloggers and it affects their opinions and coverage. What happened every time the crowd booed last night? Joe Rogan would say something to the effect of “…I don’t know what they are booing, this is a great fight.” Well, sometimes it was, sometimes it wasn’t, Joe. Sometimes it was two guys trying to slap leg locks on one another who looked like they didn’t know what they were doing. The people booing at Staples Center annoyed the piss out of me too. That doesn’t mean they weren’t right at times.
The point here is that it is irresponsible for bloggers/messageboard members to play down the crime that happened last night in LA. The masses think it was highway robbery and the MMA snobs don’t want to play to the masses. They want to show how smart they are. They want to show how much more they know about MMA than you are I. That’s the only explanation. Here is a comment on a blog I read on a regular basis:
The only time Machida was in any danger was when he slipped on the mat, and he didn’t even get taken down then. At no other point in the fight did I feel like Machida was in trouble.
There were multiple times where Machida had Rua in trouble but his excessive caution made him back off. But that is why Machida won; he put Rua in danger. Rua did a lot of leg kicks and impressive looking misses, but never really put the champ in danger. In that situation, the challenger should not win a decision.
It’s a disappointing performance by Machida—- he needs to be willing to take more chances to be a great champion. But he still won the fight. I firmly believe the compustrike stats will bear that out. The CSAC judges made the right call.
This poster is an idiot and clearly wrong. From Bloody Elbow FightMetric scored the bout 49-46 for Mauricio “Shogun” Rua over Lyoto Machida. This douche just wanted to disagree with everyone and make it all about himself. This is one of the more glaring examples but, the passive aggressive nature of some coverage of this horrendous decision is even more damaging. The hardcore fans and bloggers need to realize that it is more important to watch the sport and enjoy it than it is to separate themselves from fans they think are beneath them. The goal of all MMA fans should be the growth of the sport. We want this thing to be the NFL. It won’t be if awful decisions that cost men championships are not discussed honestly and openly. It won’t be the NFL, then it will be boxing. And nobody wants that.
October 25th, 2009 at 2:01 pm
You could know nothing about MMA and still call that fight for Shogun. He won that fight. Dana even knows that.
October 25th, 2009 at 2:14 pm
“The hardcore fans and bloggers need to realize that it is more important to watch the sport and enjoy it than it is to separate themselves from fans they think are beneath them.”
The Gospel according to Dukes, Amen.
I can’t stand assholes who make their sports fandom all about themselves. Just like those Caps “fans” that are bitter now that people are fired up about the team.
October 25th, 2009 at 2:21 pm
That whole “you have to beat the champ to get the belt” is garbage. Nobody was saying that when Griffin beat Rampage. The judges didn’t have a problem giving the challenger the win even though he didn’t decisively “take” it from the champion. I thought Machida winning last night was a horrible decision as well. I thought Shogun did more than enough to win that fight.
October 25th, 2009 at 2:37 pm
Thank you Dukes. I was angry all night because of that decision and all the MMA guys like Iole blaming Shogun for not doing enough when everyone and their fucking cat knew who won that fight. Shogun dictated the tempo for pretty much the entire fight, there\’s no way Machida is walking today, and he ran one of the most effective gameplans i\’ve seen against one of the best fighters in the world. It was a bullshit decision and Shogun should have that belt right now. His first defense will be taking it from Machida the next time they fight.
October 25th, 2009 at 2:47 pm
Chad your dead on sir!!!! Last night when the fight ended i had a sinkging feeling that they are gonna give it to Machida and they fuckin did! I hate MMA scoring, its getting to be as bad as the already insanely shitty boxing robbery we see constantly.
I was with a group of people who know very little about mma and they even knew Shogun was robbed. Also, 30-27 for all three judges. Its a fuckin crime!
October 25th, 2009 at 2:48 pm
its real easy to look back at the fight as a whole and then go back and say shogun won those early rounds. If you are grading them on the fly though and dont see much (on either side) other than some leg kicks those rounds are ALWAYS going to go to the champion.
I cant take credit for the idea but the people who are really at blame here are shogun’s cornermen. To continue telling shogun that he had this fight in the bag and not to go out and put an exclamation point on his victory is almost criminal.
October 25th, 2009 at 3:10 pm
Very good points Dukes I’m glad someone came out and said the things you said
October 25th, 2009 at 4:01 pm
I thought the first 3 rounds were very close and you could go either way on who won them. I think shogun won the last two. But i don’t see how you can argue that it was an absolute robbery. There was so little damage done in the first 3 rounds. What do you give more points too machida connecting with a straight to shogun’s head or shogun kicking machida in the leg/body. because on almost every exchange they both connected. The fight was so close why are people making this out to be the worst decision in history?
October 25th, 2009 at 4:25 pm
I had Machida winning the first three rounds. Shogun did more damage. Jardine may have beaten Liddell, but he looked much worse for wear.
But hey, we can look forward to the immediate rematch.
October 25th, 2009 at 5:08 pm
With all due respect to your opinion dukes, shogun undoubtably had the upper hand in the 4th and 5th round when the effects of his leg kicks began to really become apparent, but how can you not acknowledge that for the first three rounds machida was the more precise, disciplined, and effective striker? During those exchanges shoguns’ kicks were hit or miss. (granted given the power he possesses he can create damage with a lower % of connections) Machida had shogun on his heels three times where he looked to be in “trouble”, not necessarily dire straights but absorbing significant damage and landing 2 maybe 3 to every shot Rua threw, not landed. Ruas’ gameplan and skill set proved to be the most effective yet against machida and he stuck with it well, but before the middle of the third round he was more inaccurate and overmatched in terms or quickness. I dont agree with the unanimous decision in any way but to call it a robbery i believe is equally as misleading.
October 25th, 2009 at 8:56 pm
I honestly don’t see how anyone could watch that fight and say that Lyoto Machida won. Shogun brought the right plan to win the fight, and executed it to a tee. All you need to know is the look in Machida’s face before the decision was announced, and in the faces of his corner. They all knew that his undefeated run had ended, that DE DRAGOOOOON was no longer DE CHAMPEEEEOOOOON but they were wrong, the judges had saved their man. Bogus decision, great fight, a big disappointment as far as fairness, the right thing and all that shit goes.
STDC
October 25th, 2009 at 10:30 pm
Dukes–I love this blog. I love the variety of content. Whether people agree or disagree with what you wrote, it’s good to see you expand on some of your thoughts. I, for one, would like to see more lengthy posts.
As for the fight? Yeah. Shogun won. Everyone watching the fight with me knew this. We ALL thought it was very close, and could see how maybe 1 judge could call it in favor of Machida. But all 3?!?!?!?! No fucking way.
October 25th, 2009 at 10:31 pm
Agreed man on all counts. I was completely taken aback by the decision and I think everyone standing in the ring at that time were as well. I’ve never seen a more blatant wrong decision in all my years of watching MMA.
First the Brewfest was a wash and then another UFC PPV that didn’t live up to the hype. What a Saturday.
October 25th, 2009 at 11:43 pm
It pisses me off when I hear or read people saying he didn’t do enough to take the belt from Machida. Since when is beating another fighter 4 out of 5 rounds not good enough to win the fight?
October 26th, 2009 at 3:52 am
Great post i fully agree. We had a fight party here last night all with REAL mma fans. The guys that follow the sport and appreciate it for the great sport it is. I was the only real rua fan in the place but by fights end just before decision all my boys are sayin your guy won great fight when i heard decision i wanted to cry lol. Today almost everything i read is Shogun did not bring it to hom he didnt beat him. Since when is winning every round except maybe round 3 not beating someone?
October 26th, 2009 at 5:43 pm
Great post, and couldn’t agree more that Shogun won that fight.
October 26th, 2009 at 9:12 pm
I scored it 4-1 for Shogun. That fight basically destroyed the credibility of the UFC. Its as fixed as boxing. terrible. just terrible.