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UFC 163: Lyoto Machida loses to Phil Davis in controversial unanimous decision

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The co-main event of UFC 163 was a light heavyweight battle between the elusive karate-ka, Lyoto “The Dragon” Machida, and submission-savvy wrestler “Mr. Wonderful” Phil Davis. The winner of this bout would no doubt have to be put into the title shot conversation, especially with an impressive victory.

UFC 163: Lyoto Machida loses to Phil Davis in controversial unanimous decision

The start of the first round saw both men starting slow, exchanging kicks, with Machida mixing in the jab. “The Dragon” catches Davis with a high kick after “Mr. Wonderful” slaps his leg in a range-finding effort. Lyoto pushes forward with a series of combinations, only to be taken down by the former NCAA All-American. Davis finishes the round on top, throwing in some light ground’n’pound after letting go of a head and arm choke attempt. Tough round to call.

The second round has Davis showing more confidence in his striking, circling left and pumping out jabs and leg kicks to establish range. Machida, though, was working with his trademark footwork, evading “Mr. Wonderful” and leading him on a chase while landing the occasional leg kick. Phil scores with the overhand right, but is frustratingly tentative now, allowing Machida to chip away at him from distance. Still, another close round.

Round 3 has Machida scoring with knee before getting a standing backtake on Davis. “Mr. Wonderful” shrugs him off, and takes a kick from “The Dragon” in the process. Machida throwss Davis off from a clinch attempt like a boss. Machida with the hard left, before showing his takedown defence skills off by stuffing a series of attempts from Davis. Machida takes this round 10-9, but in shocker, does not take the fight.

Phil Davis def. Lyoto Machida by Unanimous Decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)

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Justin Pierrot is MMASucka.com's resident musicologist and TUF aficionado. When not looking after his family or writing his weekly pieces, he's making music as Stormland or building Gundam models.

1,408 comments

  • machida gets rigged says:

    so bulllll shittt

  • christophersneakybadnessswag says:

    So to win by decision in the UFC, regardless of how many significant strikes you eat and how many of your takedowns are defended, all you have to do is score at least one more take down (it doesnt matter how desperate last second it is, or if it leads to any points) to win?

    Why do these dumb fights train in anything but takedowns?

    I dont usually get so upset at the judges decision, but they are either little turnt out bitches rigging the final decision for someone, or they are just fucking dumb as fuck

  • JTriple says:

    Machida won the fight in reality, Davis won by a sliver using flawed UFC scoring in a most distasteful way that surprised everyone. Davis only had one real ground and pound moment without clean damaging shots.

    Scoring take downs like a knock down in boxing is getting a bit old. I could maybe understand if that was the case to benefit the popular ground and pound style during matt hughes and tito ortiz eras… but those days are over, and we should judge the fight objectively and not subjectively. The fans are more intelligent now and know that a take down does much less than significant damage to an opponent, if at all. If anything, take downs should now be scored only higher than forward movement/aggression. A combination or one damaging punch should score higher than a take down. Damaging ground and pound is different and near submission attempts are different. Everyone knows this is the way it should be, but it’s not, so you have no argument… why is this not on the table for discussion with the UFC. If it doesn’t get addressed, I believe the UFC will slip into ignorance… which is ok for them I suppose, as long as the majority of the fans are or remain ignorant.

  • akaten says:

    Judges got bribed

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