The debate over who won the UFC 104 main event last Saturday continues. PRIDE 2005 Middleweight Grand Prix winner Mauricio "Shogun" Rua saw his dreams of holding gold inside of the UFC put on hold, at least for now, after dropping a controversial unanimous decision to UFC light heavyweight champion Lyoto Machida. Fighter's Only Magazine is reporting that Shogun's manager, Eduardo Alonso, insists that the judges made a bad decision.
"It was unanimous here, there was no single person who didn’t give the victory to Mauricio," Alonso recently told Tatame. "I hope they agree to a rematch."
UFC President Dana White stated that a rematch is in the works, and he himself thinks the wrong person won the fight.
"Unfortunately, we’ll have to fight twice to have what we should have today," Alonso noted.
Shogun echoes his managers comments that he should have been declared the winner of the bout.
"I knew that Lyoto was good, [but] I’m sure that I won, everybody thinks that I won," Shogun explained. "I talked with a lot of people here and they thought that I won, but unfortunately I think that they gave him the victory because of some outside interests.
"Everyone was surprised with what happened in the end, but what can I do?" he added. "In my point of view, being fair, I won four rounds. People thought the same, Dana White, Lorenzo (Fertitta), Rickson Gracie was beside us. Everyone gave me the victory."
Meanwhile, Machida insists that the judges made the right call, and encourages UFC fans to take a second look at the fight.
“If you see the fight without audio, you will probably see a different fight,” Machida told Sherdog.com. “Shogun was a great opponent and had a nice strategy. He deserves all my respect as a fighter, but I was superior.”
At this time, no rematch has been set, but White promises to make it happen.
"I’m ready to make this rematch as fast as we can," White said during the UFC 104 post-fight press conference. "I want to see this fight again."
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