Checking From Behind Pulling No Punches

In the wake of the constant media and fan criticism of the judging of UFC 104's main event fight between Lyoto Machida and Mauricio "Shogun" Rua, Referee and Judge Cecil Peoples told MMA Weekly he still stands by his decision but offers why he felt Machida won the fight.

“My thing is, Rua did hit him more,” said Peoples. “But Machida hit him harder, especially in the early rounds.”

Peoples stands by the fact that despite the amount of leg kicks Shogun delivered, it was Machida who caused more damage to his counterpart throughout the fight, and thus the leg kicks were merely the only form of offense by Shogun throughout the entire fight. In fact, Peoples finds it confusing how many armchair judges would consider Rua as the winner of the opening round.

“I’m really perplexed about how you give (Rua) this round, because Shogun was kicking (Machida) a lot in the legs, but every time he kicked him in the legs, he got hit in the face,” he said. “Shogun would put his hand up, and Machida would go right through, sweat’s flying off (Rua’s) face. Shogun kicked (Machida) in the belly – that’s how he got the red mark.

“But you gotta remember, Machida is stepping back, so when he gets kicked, he’s getting brushed. But he counters Shogun with a hard kick to the belly. Which one counts more for the exchange? I give it to the (second one), because it was harder. It wasn’t brushed.”

“Machida was controlling that round because he was dominant in not getting beat up in that round,” he said. “He was the general in that first round.”

“Everybody was expecting him to destroy Shogun like he destroyed Rashad Evans, and he didn’t destroy him,” said Peoples. “It was a close fight. So people think: (Rua) did good. If he did that good, he must have won the fight.”

It's the explenation many fans have been waiting for, but those who still argue the fight to be "fixed" or "thrown" will just have to deal with the current system, as Peoples outlashed to reporters concerning the fight and the method of scoring on behalf of judges.

“So you in a bar with 200 people that are sloppy drunk, and you’re gonna argue with me about the decision?” he asked. “How does that work? Only in America. I give the fight to Machida in a very, very close fight. Now you’re pissed off because it’s my fault that you lost your money. No, it’s not. It’s Machida’s fault.”

Some fans have even called for Peoples to no longer be a judge at the events, to which he responded “if you don’t like it, you can go to hell."

Micheal A. Aldred

michealaldred@hotmail.com