It seems like whenever two fighters enter the octagon for a UFC fight these days the chances of a major controversy occurring are about even odds. Last night at UFC 104 in LA, all the signs pointed to a decision victory for Mauricio "Shogun" Rua over the vaunted Lyoto Machida. After all, Rua had dominated the last 2 rounds. Some say he dominated the last three. By the fourth round, Machida looked like he had run into a wall and could barely keep his hands up to defend himself anymore. Perhaps most telling was Machida's expression during those few tense moments before the fight was announced. Head down, solemn and seemingly awaiting the inevitable - his first loss in the UFC.

But to the surprise of Machida, Rua and pretty much the entire MMA community, the judges gave Machida the decision victory. All three scoring the contest 48-47.

Something has to be done about the way these fights are scored. It's not a stretch to say 99% of those who saw the fight thought; Machida had suffered his first loss. Were the judges watching a different fight from the rest of us? Decisions like this can wind up hurting the sport in the long run. Sure, there will inevitably be a Machida/Rua 2 sometime soon, but a decision like the one last night will only spread rumors of fight fixing and illegitimize the sport. So far, there haven't been any fixing accusations. In fact no one really believes it was. But if another decision like Machida/Rua occurs at UFC 105 or UFC 106, you can be sure, major changes will be made in the way the judges score these contests.

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