Dana White: "I think there will be a rematch" between Lyoto Machida and Shogun Rua
by John Morgan on Oct 25, 2009 at 5:05 am ET
LOS ANGELES – Never one to bite his tongue, UFC president Dana White didn't take long to express his feelings on the main event of Saturday night's "UFC 104: Machida vs. Shogun" in Los Angeles.
"I thought 'Shogun' won the fight," White said as UFC 104's post-fight press conference opened.
White was just as displeased as most fans in attendance at Staples Center, as well as the majority of viewers at home, that champion Lyoto Machida was awarded a unanimous-decision win over challenger Mauricio "Shogun" Rua. But unlike the rest of those complaining, White can schedule a rematch – and it looks like he will.
"I think there will be a rematch," White said. "I talked to both of them, and they both agreed to a rematch."
The five round affair between Machida and Rua proved difficult to score. With both fighters remaining patient while picking and choosing their shots, neither outright claimed any of the frames. White said that's a behavior that needs to change moving forward.
"One of the things I always tell these guys is 'You can't leave it in the hands of the judges,'" White said. "You just can't do it. But at the end of every round, neither one of the guys went after it. Neither guy tried to steal the round.
"You saw it a lot in boxing – and these guys have got to learn it in MMA – is when that 30 seconds is left, go after it and try to steal that round. Neither one of them did it throughout the fight."
It was that inability to steal rounds that led to the hotly disputed decision. But while White claimed he felt Rua earned the win, the UFC exec admitted the rounds were close.
"When you go round-by-round and you score the fight, I actually had Machida winning the fight up until the third round," White said. "The first round could have gone either way. I gave the second and third to Machida. And then I gave the fourth and fifth to 'Shogun.' Assuming that 'Shogun' won the first, fourth and fifth, he wins the fight.
"I knew it was going to be a tough one. I knew it was going to be strategic. It was everything I thought it would be, except they should have pressed more and gone after it at the end of the rounds and tried to really pull out the rounds and make it easier to score. It was a tough fight to score."
White said he would have to figure out when a rematch could take place, but he think it should be the next fight for each competitor. And White said his motivation for scheduling a rematch has as much to with his desires as a fan as much as his concerns as a businessman.
"That's me the fight fan (and) the businessman," White told MMAjunkie.com (
www.mmajunkie.com). "Whatever you want to call me, I want to see this fight again."
