UFC 104 Shogun vs. Machida

October 23, 2009

A quick look at UFC 104, live on pay-per-view tomorrow night beginning at 4 p.m. Hawaii time.

MAIN EVENT
UFC LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP
Lyoto Machida (15-0) vs. Mauricio Rua (18-3)

Machida finally reached championship status with a brutal KO of Rashad Evans. His first title defense comes against a man that I thought was the best 205-pound fighter in the world in PRIDE in “Shogun” Rua. Unfortunately, the rules are a little different in the UFC and we haven’t had a chance to see Rua unleash his stomps and kicks that overwhelmed the best of the best. Machida has been unstoppable in his UFC career. He’s dominated everyone he’s faced and he’s barely had to withstand any offense from his opponents.

I hyped Shogun when he arrived in the UFC and while he hasn’t been impressive, a knockout of Chuck Liddell and a very uninspiring win over Mark Coleman is apparently enough to get a title shot. I would love to see the Shogun of PRIDE show up to this fight, but even then, I’m not sure he could solve the riddle known as Lyoto Machida. Here’s hoping for fireworks and to my statement a year ago that Rua would be champion by the end of 2009, but I just can’t see him getting past Machida. Another TKO victory for the champ.

Cain Velasquez (6-0) vs. Ben Rothwell (30-6)

Velasquez is the big up-and-comer in the heavyweight division and will be tested by the veteran Rothwell. This is another chance for Velasquez to prove he is the prospect everyone is hyping him up as. A knockout of Rothwell would really elevate his status to title fight level, but it won’t be easy. Rothwell’s only loss in his last 15 fights is to Andrei Arlovski, but this is his first fight in the UFC, so even the much more experienced fighter will likely have quite a few butterflies in his stomach as he enters the cage. Good solid matchup between two heavyweight bruisers, but I’ll take Velasquez with a bunch of takedowns and ground-and-pound to grind out a victory.

Besides these two fights, not the most intriguing card for me. The rest of the fights are as follows:

Gleison Tibau (29-6) vs. Josh Neer (25-8-1)
Joe Stevenson (35-10) vs. Spencer Fisher (24-4)
Yoshiyuki Yoshida (11-3) vs. Anthony Johnson (7-2)
Ryan Bader (10-0) vs. Eric Schafer (13-3-2)
Antoni Hardonk (8-5) vs. Patrick Barry (4-1)
Yushin Okami (24-4) vs. Chael Sonnen (24-10-1)
Jorge Rivera (16-7) vs. Rob Kimmons (22-4)
Kyle Kingsbury (7-2, 1 NC) vs. Razak Al-Hassan (7-1)
Stefan Struve (21-3) vs. Chase Gormley (6-0)

Posted in Fights