UFC 104: Machida vs. Shogun

Preliminary Card Results:
Chase Gormley vs. Stefan Struve W - Submission (Triangle Choke)
Razak Al-Hassan vs. Kyle Kingsbury W - Decision (Split)
Jorge Rivera W vs. Rob Kimmons - TKO (Strikes)
Yushin Okami vs. Chael Sonnen W - Decision (Unanimous)
Antoni Hardonk vs. Pat Barry W - TKO (Strikes)
Eric Shafer vs. Ryan Bader W - Decision (Unanimous)

Main Card Results:
Anthony Johnson W vs. Yoshiyuki Yoshida - TKO (Strikes)
Joe Stevenson W vs. Spencer Fisher - TKO (Strikes)
Josh Neer vs. Gleison Tibau W - Decision (Unanimous)
Ben Rothwell vs. Cain Velasquez W - TKO (Strikes)
Mauricio “Shogun” Rua vs. Lyoto Machida W - Decision (Unanimous)

Machida retains light-heavyweight title with close win at UFC 104
Lyoto (The Dragon) Machida edged Mauricio (Shogun) Rua to retain his light-heavyweight title via decision Saturday night in an technical five-round battle that was a lot closer than most expected at UFC 104.

All three judges scored it 48-47 for Machida (16-0). The decision drew boos from the crowd who thought Rua had done enough to win.

Rua, a heavy underdog, managed to do what past opponents hadn't. He connected and damaged Machida, who had not lost a round in seven UFC bouts prior to this one.

Rua (18-4) thrust his hands up in the air as the final bell sounded. And he drew cheers when he was interviewed in the cage.

"I feel like I won this fight but a fight is a fight, what can you do," Rua said.

Rua came forward to start the bout, eating knees and kicks early on but delivering some of his own. The champion escaped a clinch at the fence but Rua kept coming and Machida soon had a red welt on his stomach. Machida nodded, as if in respect, as the round ended.

Rua, in his more upright Muay Thai stance, soon had a reddened torso in the second as Machida was more aggressive. The champion scored with his straight left and fought off takedown attempts.

The two fighters often clashed, with a Rua attack matched instantly by a Machida counter-attack. It was very technical and - in short bursts - very violent.

Both men wore marks in the third, their chiselled torsos reddened from brutal kicks. Machida rushed Rua towards the end of the round, punishing him at the fence but Rua survived the onslaught.

Both men were rubbed with icepacks between rounds.

The fourth round was more cautious with a few exchanges. Machida survived a slip to escape a takedown attempt.

Rua kept advancing in the fifth, throwing kicks and stalking the champion. Machida responded with knees but took punishment and was bleeding slightly from the face as the round wore on.

In the co-main event at the Staples Center, Cain Velasquez used his wrestling skills to dominate former IFL heavyweight (Big) Ben Rothwell en route to a one-sided second-round TKO.

Referee Steve Mazzagatti stopped the fight 58 seconds into the round with Rothwell on one knee at the fence, trying to get up while taking a half-dozen heavy strikes to the face. Some fans booed the decision, but the fight was so one-sided that it merited the stoppage.

Machida came into the fight as the least-hit fighter in UFC history. On the flipside, he was second only in striking accuracy to middleweight champion Anderson Silva.

A black belt in jiu-jitsu and karate, Machida is both elusive and dangerous. His unique style is based around the Machida family brand of karate, which harkens back to an age gone by where one touch by a sword-wielding opponent could lead to death.

Once booed for his peekaboo now-you-see-me-now-you-don't style, Machida now finishes opponents and, judging from the crowd reception this week, is winning fans as well as fights.

So did Rua, who merits a rematch.

Velasquez (7-0) was slated to meet Shane Carwin to decide who takes on champion Brock Lesnar for the title. But the unbeaten Carwin was moved directly to a championship bout with Lesnar next month at UFC 106 and Velasquez was matched up with the six-foot-four 265-pound Rothwell.

Velasquez, the son of a Mexican immigrant, got a huge reception from the southern California crowd as he walked in to Mexican music - the Mexican colours clutched in his hand and Brown Pride tattooed on his chest.

Rothwell (30-7), who went 9-0 in the IFL before joining the UFC via Affliction, was roundly booed. And he was soon on his back, taking lumps from Velasquez, a former All-American wrestler who tossed Rothwell around as if he was a rag doll. The first round was all Velasquez and so was what little of the second that took place.

Earlier, lightweight Joe (Daddy) Stevenson walked out to the Black Eyed Peas' "I've Got a Feeling" and - as the song predicts - had a good night by stopping Spencer (The King) Fisher.

Fisher eluded Stevenson's early takedown attempts but emerged from the first round with a cut around the right eye. Stevenson (36-10) took him down in the second and punished him before trapping both arms and delivering a dozen elbows to the head. Fisher (24-5) tapped out due to strikes at 4:03 of the second round.

Stevenson joked later that his sisters used to put the same move on him as a kid so they could hold him down and apply makeup.

Welterweight Anthony (Rumble) Johnson knocked out Japan's Yoshiyuki Yoshida in 41 seconds. The six-foot-two Johnson drove the smaller Yoshida (8-2) to the fence with punches, measured him and then floored him with a right to the head.

Referee Mazzagatti did Yoshida (11-4) a big favour by stepping in immediately to protect the fallen fighter. It was the second big knockout in Yoshida's last three fights. Josh Koscheck put him to sleep in December.

Johnson had to forfeit 20 per cent of his purse to Yoshida after weighing in at 176 pounds, five over the welterweight limit.

Gleison Tibau (30-6) won a decision over Josh (The Dentist) Neer (25-9-1) in a lightweight bout contested at a catchweight after both fighters missed weight.

On the undercard, Pat Barry knocked out Antoni Hardonk in the second round in a battle of heavyweight kickboxers.

The five-foot-11 Barry was giving up five inches to Hardonk but got the crowd going in the second round by slicing through the big Dutchman's defence with heavy punches that drove Hardonk back. He finally put him down for good with a right to the temple, finishing off Hardonk with an overhand right 2:30 into the round.

An emotional Barry did a backflip in the cage after winning.

Light-heavyweight Ryan (Darth) Bader, a former all-American wrestler with a big right hand, won a decision over a game Eric (Red) Schafer.

Bader, winner of Season 8 of "The Ultimate Fighter," stalked and then pounded Schafer in the first round. Schafer, a black belt in jiu-jitsu, somehow survived to slap on an arm submission but Bader (11-0) escaped. In the third, Bader nailed Schafer again, putting him down and then cutting him with an elbow. Schafer (13-4-2) ended the fight looking for another submission but it was too little too late.

Middleweight Chael Sonnen (25-10-1) looked impressive in a unanimous decision over Japan's Yushin (Thunder) Okami, who suffered only his second loss in nine UFC outings. Sonnen pushed the pace and Okami had no answers.

Okami (24-5) was once considered a middleweight contender but a string of injuries and dull fights dropped him down the pecking order.

Veteran middleweight Jorge (El Conquistador) Rivera battered and bloodied Rob (The Rosedale Reaper) Kimmons en route to a third-round TKO. Rivera punished the shorter Kimmons in the clinch at the fence and hurt him on the ground.

Dutch beanpole Stefan (Skyscraper) Struve handed heavyweight Chase Gormley his first loss, locking on a triangle choke at 4:04 of the first round.

Light-heavyweight Kyle Kingsbury evened his UFC record at 1-1 with a split decision over (Razor) Razak Al-Hassan in a so-so contest.

The event was the UFC's first in Los Angeles since UFC 60 in May 2006.