Rua gets second shot at Machida

Only seven months ago, Ultimate Fighting Championship light heavyweight champion Lyoto Machida appeared to be an unbeatable force.

It took only 25 minutes in a cage in Los Angeles for Mauricio “Shogun” Rua to disprove that notion.

But while Rua shattered Machida’s aura of invincibility in October, Machida escaped UFC 104 with the belt still around his waist after winning a unanimous decision by the narrowest of margins on all three scorecards.

The controversial outcome prompted the organization to do something it has often avoided by granting Rua an immediate rematch, though a hand injury to Machida caused the bout to be delayed several months.

Rua finally will get his second chance at the belt in the main event of UFC 113 in Montreal on Saturday night.

“The biggest proof that this was a controversial fight was the fact that a rematch was set up immediately,” the Brazilian said through a translator on a conference call. “But this is all in the past for me right now and what gives me comfort is the fact that I’m having another (shot) at a title and I’ll fight for the world championship again.”

Rua regards Saturday as a completely new opportunity.

“I don’t think about controversy or any thoughts of what happened because I think this can only hinder an athlete if you keep thinking of that,” he said.

Still, Rua will take a measure of confidence to the cage after experiencing far more success against Machida than any of his previous UFC opponents.

Rua used a varied attack to land 80 strikes on Machida, many on leg kicks and body shots in the clinch.

In his first seven UFC bouts, Machida had been hit only 62 times. He had never lost so much as a round, but lost two of the five on each scorecard against Rua.

The champion survived the barrage and escaped with his eighth straight win in the UFC, tied for the second-longest winning streak in organization history.

Machida says he didn’t underestimate Rua, but feels both fighters likely learned from the first bout.

“Every fight’s a new experience, but I do think that both for myself and for Shogun, being in there with each other for 25 minutes, I’m sure he noticed some things about me and I noticed some things about him,” the Brazilian Machida said through a translator.

“That’s the great thing about the rematch. We’re both a lot more familiar with each other than we were the first time, so I think it makes for all that much greater of a fight this time around.”

That doesn’t mean there will be a new game plan for Machida, who has ridden an unorthodox striking style based in karate to his undefeated record.

“There’s not too much that’s going to change,” he said. “I’ve worked on certain areas of my game to improve, but for the most part I’m going to come in and apply my strategy.”

Rua said he knows there is not much he can do about the outcome if the fight again goes to the scorecards.

He concedes stopping the champion is a tall order; Machida has never been knocked down in his 16-fight professional career.

“I always fight trying to look for a knockout, and that’s what I will do again,” Rua said. “But Lyoto is a great fighter, so it’s not an easy thing to achieve, and I just focus on doing my best. I mean, he never was knocked out or submitted in his career, so it’s not an easy thing to do.”

The fight headlines a pay-per-view event that also features a welterweight fight between Josh Koscheck and Paul Daley and a heavyweight bout between Kimbo Slice and Matt Mitrione.

Contact reporter Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com or 702-224-5509.