A look into UFC 104 Machida vs Shogun

On October 24th the UFC will head back to Staples Center in L.A and will try to put on an exciting show like the one they put on the last time they where there, when Matt Hughes destroyed legend Royce Gracie. In charge of doing this the main event will feature, in my opinion, the best Light Heavyweight in the world Lyoto Machida, and top 10 ranked contender Mauricio Shougun Hua.

Shogun Hua comes into this fight with a pretty good record of 18-3 his only losses coming to Renato Babalu Sobral, which was only his second fight, a loss to Mark Coleman in which he broke his arm, and his UFC debut to Forrest Griffin.

Shogun is a very exciting fighter little known to the UFC fans, but back in Japan this kid was a superstar and in that time, considered the best in the world. Some of his attributes include impressive kicks, a very dangerous clinch (ask Rampage Jackson) and great rarely seen ground and pound from inside the guard.
However coming into the UFC he had been out almost a year due to injury and his debut was less that impressive, after that he took on Mark Coleman in a fight where people began to cheer for Coleman (enough said) and his only good win came in his last fight against now retired, ex Dancing with the Stars member Chuck Liddell, so for the UFC to give him a title shot he should be more than grateful because honestly he didn't deserve it. The only reason he got it was because the 2 top contenders Rampage and Rashad where doing the TUF 10 as coaches.

Enter Lyoto Machida coming with an impressive, let me repeat that, impressive record of 15-0 that he has maintained since his debut in 2003, Lyoto became popular recently after fighting Thiago Silva, but before that he had already beaten UFC Champions such as Rich Franklin and B.J Penn, now in my opinion if Lyoto shows up to do what he knows and has been doing all along his career Shogun dosent stand a chance.
See what we are seeing now in the UFC is that the champions (all except Brock Lesnar) all have one thing in common, they are real martial artists, not street looking thugs that, (like Dana White likes to say) like to bang! but true martial artists that have great ground skills but that are masters in their own martial art. B.j Penn in Jui Jitsu, St Pierre in Kyokushin Karate, Anderson Silva Muay Thai, and Lytoto in Machida Karate.

So were seeing a trend here, like in the beginning with Gracie, his style dominated all, these champions are a notch above everyone else they just dont go in like Tito Ortiz and flip everyone or do bullshit, they really are maters at what the do, think about it, who can beat these Champions in there weight classes? B.J had to go fight St Pierre and Silva went up also.

Machida is not only like these other champions, he is the least hit fighter in the UFC, he gets hit like twice every round which probably makes him the most dangerous.

So what can Shogun do?

Nothing, he will come out and try to figure Machida out but he will look to slow, the only slight chance he stands is to take him down and try to keep him on his back, but if Tito Ortiz couldnt do that, you think Shogun can?

At the end of the night Machida will be victorious and the only question in our minds will be who the next challenger for the Light Heavyweight title, he has already beaten Rashad, Rampage says he is retired, who else? Forrest? Jardine? please...

If it where up to me Id make all of the champions (again except Brock) make weight at 185 and fight each other and maybe see some challenges for these impressive martial artist.

I dont think B.J could make weight, anyways just some thoughts.

Diego Cervs