SCRAPP! FIGHT MAGAZINE
July - 2015
11
On Dec. 31, 2003, he took
part in Inoki’s annual event
Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye 2003, where
he fought future UFC Middle-
weight Champion, Rich Frank-
lin in an catchweight bout.
Machida defeated Franklin via
TKO in the second round. This
was also Franklin’s first profes-
sional defeat.
Machida would go on to win
his next three fights with the
most notable vistory over for-
mer UFC welterweight cham-
pion, B.J. Penn on March 26,
2005, in Saitama at Hero’s 1
in an openweight match. Ma-
chida weighed in at 102.0 kg
(224.9 lbs) while Penn weighed
in at 86.5 kg (191 lbs). Machida
won by unanimous decision.
Feb. 3, 2007, Machida would
make his UFC début at UFC
67 All or Nothing where he
would have his hands raised in
a match against Sam Hogar by
unanimous decision. Machida
would win his next two fight
also by unanimous decision.
Machida would then face light
heavyweight stand out Rame-
au Thierry Sokoudjou at UFC
79 on Dec. 29, 2007. Machida
would have his hand raised
after a second round triangle
choke submission.
The next fight for Machida was
set up by UFC president Dana
White in what was supposed
to be Tito Ortiz’s last fight in
the UFC. At the time, Ortiz and
White were not getting along
and White wanted to see Ortiz
punished before he departed.
This was a back and forth fight
with Machida landing a knee
to the liver of Ortiz in the third
that would send Ortiz to the
ground. Machida tried to finish
the fight, but Ortiz held on and
the fight would go to decision
with Machida once again hav-
ing his hand raised.
In the co-main event of UFC
94, Machida faced fellow un-
defeated Brazilian contender,
Thiago Silva. The two were
originally scheduled to meet
at UFC 89, but a back injury
forced Silva to withdraw from
the contest. UFC President,
Dana White, indicated in the
pre-fight press conference that
Machida would receive a title
shot with a victory. Machida
was able to knock down Silva
twice during the first round
before ultimately knocking
him out after tripping him and
jumping in landing the knock-
out punch at 4:59 of the first
round, scoring his first UFC
knockout victory and winning
his first Knockout of the Night
bonus award.
Machida would get his title
shot against light heavyweight
champion, Rashad Evans, in
another clash of undefeated
fighters on the main event of
UFC 98. Machida scored an
early knockdown in the first
round and ultimately knocked
Evans out with a flurry of
punches at 3:57 of the second
round, becoming the tenth
UFC light heavyweight cham-
pion. His performance earned
him ‘Knockout of the Night’
honors with a $60,000 bonus
for the second time. After the
fight Joe Rogan said in a very
convincing tone “welcome to
the Machida era”.
Machida’s first title defense
would come against 2005 Pride
Fighting Middleweight Grand
Prix winner Mauricio “Sho-
gun” Rua. The bout took place
on Oct. 24, 2009, at UFC 104,
with Machida winning by unani-
mous decision, 48–47 from all
three judges, with one stating
that Machida “landed the more
damaging strikes throughout the
fight” and was the more “effec-
tive aggressor”. This fight would
come with a lot of controversy
behind the decision. Because of
the controversy surrounding the
close decision, on May 8, 2010,
at UFC 113 in Montreal, Canada,
Machida and Rua rematched,
seven months after their origi-
nal fight. In the much antici-
pated rematch, both fighters
started aggressively and scored
significant points in striking ex-
changes. While the two traded
punches, Rua swerved to avoid
a left straight from Machida and
landed a powerful counter over-
hand right to the temple, which
knocked Machida down. Rua
then took the full mount and
proceeded to knock Machida
out with ground-and-pound,
making him the new light heavy-
weight champion at 3:35 of
round 1, with Machida suffering
his first MMA career loss.
With his first loss on his record,
we would get to see Machida
face Quinton “Rampage” Jack-
son where Machida would loss
a split decision to Rampage in
what would be his second loss
