Lyoto Machida is human. He also remained the UFC light heavyweight champion after a grueling five round unanimous decision win over Mauricio Rua at STAPLES Center in a bout that may have shown more about the challenger than the champion, as “Shogun” finally showed UFC fans the form that had him terrorizing 205-pounders in Japan’s PRIDE organization from 2003 to 2007.
“I trained hard for this fight. I feel like I won this fight,” said Rua, who pushed Machida into deep waters he had never seen in his 16 fight pro career.
“It’s the most difficult fight I had in the UFC,” said Machida, who had not lost a round, let alone a fight in his seven previous trips to the Octagon.
Scores were 48-47 across the board for Machida. The decision was greeted with boos from the Los Angeles crowd, but in a bout as tough to score as this one, it’s hard to find fault with the final verdict.
