10 worst judges' decisions in UFC history

#7 Lyoto Machida vs. Mauricio Rua, UFC 104 – October 24th, 2009

Shogun Rua found the chink in Lyoto Machida's armor but was robbed by the judges

Going into UFC 104 all of the hype was on Lyoto Machida, who had been crowned UFC Light-Heavyweight champion five months prior. At that point, nobody had been able to figure out his karate-based style, and he was massively favored to beat former PRIDE champion ‘Shogun’ Rua, who had basically been given a title shot based on his reputation and a win over a much-diminished Chuck Liddell.

As Shogun hadn’t shown anything close to his PRIDE form in the UFC, most fans were expecting a Machida whitewash. Instead they were stunned as Rua apparently cracked the code and found a way to hurt ‘The Dragon’; rather than attempt to hit him in the face, he instead focused all of his attacks on the body and legs, both hurting Machida and also hampering his movement – the biggest reason for all of his success.

Both men took some hard shots in what turned out to be a great fight, but when all was said and done it appeared that Shogun’s body and leg work would be enough to win – most viewers gave him the first, second, fourth and fifth rounds. But the judges went the other way and unanimously scored the contest 48-47 for Machida. Even the initially pro-Lyoto crowd was horrified at the announcement, showering the cage with boos and chanting for Shogun.

Controversy followed the decision too when judge Cecil Peoples tried to argue that “leg kicks don’t win fights”, despite the fact that two UFC fights had been stopped by TKO due to that very attack in the 12 months prior to UFC 104.

Thankfully UFC president Dana White agreed with the fans and an immediate rematch was booked, and Shogun made good of the whole debacle by knocking Machida out in the first round to finally claim the title he should’ve won seven months prior.