Controversy

Machida vs. Shogun 1 Scorecard: Did Shogun Rua Really Lose at UFC 104?

Shogun out-landed the unbeaten champion in every round, 80 significant strikes to 35, and all five media scorecards had him winning. All three judges gave it to Machida.

By Jashan Oct 18, 2026 · 7 min read

At a glance

1ResultMachida by unanimous decision - 48-47 on all three cards
2The judgesCecil Peoples, Marcos Rosales and Nelson Hamilton; referee Herb Dean
3The splitAll three gave Machida rounds 2 and 3 and Shogun round 5; they divided rounds 1 and 4
4The statsSignificant strikes 80-35 to Shogun, ahead in every round; 49 leg kicks landed to Machida's 3
5The mediaAll five media scorecards on MMADecisions had Shogun winning
6Our card49-46 Shogun

What was at stake

In October 2009 Lyoto Machida looked close to unbeatable. He was 15-0, he had never lost a round in seven UFC fights, and in May he had knocked out Rashad Evans in the second round at UFC 98 to win the light heavyweight title. UFC 104 was his first defence, and he went into it as a heavy favourite.

Mauricio "Shogun" Rua was 18-3. His UFC debut had ended in a submission loss to Forrest Griffin in 2007, but in 2009 he had stopped Mark Coleman at UFC 93 and knocked out Chuck Liddell in the first round at UFC 97. The question was whether anyone could hit Machida at all.

The official scorecards

Each judge's card, round by round, as reported by Sherdog and by Yahoo Sports and MMAWeekly, which agree; MMADecisions and UFC.com have the same. Scores are written Machida first.

Judge	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	Total
Cecil Peoples	10-9	10-9	10-9	9-10	9-10	48-47
Marcos Rosales	10-9	10-9	10-9	9-10	9-10	48-47
Nelson Hamilton	9-10	10-9	10-9	10-9	9-10	48-47

Referee: Herb Dean. Every round was scored 10-9. Bold marks rounds 1 and 4, the two the judges divided.

Three identical totals hide two different cards. Peoples and Rosales gave Machida the first three rounds and Shogun the last two. Hamilton gave Shogun the first and last rounds and Machida the three in the middle. The only rounds all three agreed on were 2 and 3 for Machida and 5 for Shogun, and that was enough: whichever way the judges split 1 and 4, Machida ended up with three rounds on every card.

Round by round

Round 1 - Machida 2-1 (Peoples and Rosales)

Shogun came forward kicking the legs and the body, and Machida met his entries with knees, which Fox Sports and UFC.com both describe. The official count is one-sided all the same: 19 significant strikes to 9, 15 of Shogun's to the legs, 10 of them in the clinch, and 1:12 of control. Machida's best work went to the body, 8-2. Peoples, who gave it to Machida, later told Yahoo Sports and MMAWeekly it was his closest round; Hamilton gave it to Shogun.

Round 2 - Machida (all three judges)

More of the same from Shogun: 21 significant strikes to 7, 14 of them leg kicks, 11 landed in the clinch, and 57 seconds of control. Machida countered his entries and stopped a takedown attempt, according to Fox Sports. Every judge gave the round to Machida.

Round 3 - Machida (all three judges)

The closest round on the numbers and Machida's busiest: he landed 12 significant strikes, level with Shogun to the head (6-6) and ahead to the body (6-4). Shogun still led overall, 19-12, on the strength of nine more leg kicks. Dave Meltzer of Yahoo Sports, looking back, called it the only close round; all three judges gave it to Machida.

Round 4 - Shogun 2-1 (Peoples and Rosales)

Sherdog called it the turning point. Shogun landed 10 significant strikes to 1 - Machida's one landed strike in a round of 18 attempts - and Fox Sports' live log has his kicks to the legs and body, an elbow, a knee to the body and another stopped takedown. Peoples and Rosales gave it to Shogun. Hamilton gave it to Machida, and later told Meltzer: "There was a round in that fight [Round 4] where my line of sight while they were standing was blocked."

Round 5 - Shogun (all three judges)

Sherdog described it as "all Rua". Shogun out-landed Machida 11-6 and Machida finished bleeding from the mouth, which Sherdog and Fox Sports both report. All three judges gave Shogun the round. Even on cards that gave him the fight, these were the first rounds Machida had ever lost in the UFC, as Sherdog and Sports Illustrated both noted.

What the numbers say

The official statistics, round by round (Machida first):

Round	Sig. strikes	Head	Body	Legs	Takedowns	Control
R1	9 – 19	1 – 2	8 – 2	0 – 15	0/0 – 0/1	0:00 – 1:12
R2	7 – 21	2 – 1	3 – 6	2 – 14	0/0 – 0/1	0:00 – 0:57
R3	12 – 19	6 – 6	6 – 4	0 – 9	0/0 – 0/1	0:03 – 0:12
R4	1 – 10	1 – 1	0 – 4	0 – 5	0/0 – 0/1	0:00 – 0:22
R5	6 – 11	1 – 5	4 – 0	1 – 6	0/0 – 0/0	0:20 – 0:01
Total	35 – 80	11 – 15	21 – 16	3 – 49	0/0 – 0/4	0:23 – 2:44

Shogun landed more significant strikes than Machida in every one of the five rounds and finished with more than twice as many, 80 to 35. He was far more accurate, too: 55% of his significant strikes landed, against 32% of Machida's. The fight's defining number is the leg kicks, 49 to 3, and Shogun also out-landed Machida 32-10 in the clinch and had 2:44 of control to Machida's 23 seconds. There were no knockdowns, and Shogun's four takedown attempts all failed.

Machida's case rests on the body, the one target he won (21-16), and on the idea that his strikes did more damage. That was exactly how Peoples defended his card: "My thing is, Rua did hit him more," he told Yahoo Sports and MMAWeekly. "But Machida hit him harder, especially in the early rounds." The statistics cannot measure how hard a strike lands. They can show that Shogun landed more in every round, and that to the head - where damage usually shows - he led 15-11.

The media was unanimous the other way. All five media scorecards collected by MMADecisions had Shogun winning. Dana White was just as clear: "I thought 'Shogun' won the fight," he said after the event, as Sherdog reported. "Everybody can watch a fight and look and see when momentum turns and when guys are landing more. I just don't see how these guys don't see what everybody else sees."

How we scored it

Round	MMA.SOCIAL	Why
R1	10-9 Shogun	19-9 in significant strikes, 15 leg kicks and 1:12 of control; Machida's knees and body shots were too few.
R2	10-9 Shogun	21-7 in significant strikes, 14 leg kicks and 57 seconds of control; Machida's counters were sharp but rare.
R3	10-9 Machida	His best round: level to the head, ahead to the body, and the cleaner shots in the exchanges.
R4	10-9 Shogun	10-1 in significant strikes. Machida landed one significant strike in five minutes.
R5	10-9 Shogun	11-6, and Machida finished bleeding from the mouth.
Total	49-46 Shogun

We give Machida round 3, the one round where the striking was close enough for his cleaner work to decide it. The other four we give Shogun. Round 2 is the call furthest from the judges, who all scored it for Machida, but a 21-7 round in which one man kicks the other's legs fourteen times and has the only control time is hard to give away.

Peoples's "hit him harder" argument is not unreasonable on its own: Machida's knees and counters were real. But it would need Machida to win three rounds on effect while landing fewer strikes in every one of them, and in round 4 he landed one. That is why, on any reading of the official numbers, this is not a close decision that went the wrong way. It is a decision the numbers do not support.

What happened next

The crowd booed the result, which Sherdog and Sports Illustrated both report. "I feel like I won this fight, but a fight is a fight. What can I do?" Shogun said, as Sherdog reported. A few days later he went further in a newspaper interview, as Sherdog reported: "I hit him twice as much, but the UFC judges analyzed some different aspects that I don't really understand." Machida did not back down. "I had the opportunity to see the fight again and I thought I won four rounds and Shogun took the last one," he told Sherdog.

White announced an immediate rematch the same night. It was delayed when Machida needed surgery on a broken hand, and the second fight took place at UFC 113 on May 8, 2010. It did not need judges: Shogun dropped Machida with an overhand right and finished him with punches at 3:35 of the first round. It was the first loss of Machida's career, and it made Shogun champion.

Shogun lost the title in his first defence, stopped in the third round by Jon Jones at UFC 128 in March 2011. He kept fighting for more than a decade and retired after a first-round loss to Ihor Potieria at UFC 283 in January 2023. Machida lost a split decision to Quinton "Rampage" Jackson at UFC 123, was submitted by Jones at UFC 140, and later moved to middleweight, where he lost a title fight to Chris Weidman at UFC 175 in July 2014. His last fight was a first-round knockout loss to Fabian Edwards in May 2022, outside the UFC.

The verdict

Machida vs. Shogun 1 is the rare controversial decision where the official statistics leave little room for argument. Shogun out-landed the champion in all five rounds, more than doubled his total, landed 49 leg kicks to 3 and won every media scorecard on record. The judges' case - that Machida's fewer strikes did more damage - would have to hold for three rounds, including one in which he landed once. On our card Shogun won 49-46. The rematch settled the title seven months later, but the first fight belonged to Shogun too: this was a robbery.

Full fight stats: Machida vs. Shogun. The rest of the night: UFC 104. More: the fighters with the most disputed losses, the most leg kicks and the most title fights.

Sources

Questions

Who won Machida vs. Shogun 1?

Lyoto Machida, by unanimous decision at UFC 104 on October 24, 2009. Cecil Peoples, Marcos Rosales and Nelson Hamilton all scored it 48-47 for Machida, who kept the light heavyweight title.

What was the Machida vs. Shogun scorecard?

Peoples and Rosales gave Machida rounds 1 to 3 and Shogun rounds 4 and 5. Hamilton gave Shogun rounds 1 and 5 and Machida rounds 2 to 4. All three cards came to 48-47 for Machida.

Was Machida vs. Shogun a robbery?

Most think so, and the numbers agree. Shogun landed more significant strikes in all five rounds, 80 to 35 overall, and all five media scorecards on MMADecisions had him winning. Dana White said he thought Shogun won. We scored it 49-46 for Shogun.

How many leg kicks did Shogun land on Machida?

Shogun landed 49 significant strikes to Machida's legs, against 3 by Machida, according to the official statistics. Machida's only advantage was to the body, 21 to 16.

Did Machida and Shogun have a rematch?

Yes. At UFC 113 on May 8, 2010, Shogun knocked Machida out at 3:35 of the first round to win the light heavyweight title. It was the first loss of Machida's career.