UFC 98 Results: Machida Crowned Champ With KO of Evans, Hughes Edges Serra
Lyoto Machida became the new UFC light heavyweight champion on Saturday in Las Vegas, taking out title-holder Rashad Evans with a flurry of punches in the second round of their UFC 98 headliner to capture the 205-pound belt.
Evans offered little offense in the bout, while Machida controlled the fight throughout, using his famous (or perhaps infamous) unorthodox style to score a knockdown late in the first round before eventually connecting with a barrage of punches midway through the second that first staggered Evans before ultimately collapsing him cold to the canvas.
Evans falls to 18-1-1 with the first loss of his career, while Machida remains undefeated, upping his perfect record to 15-0.
In the UFC 98 co-main event Matt Hughes picked up a controversial unanimous decision victory over Matt Serra in the highly-anticipated bout between the welterweight rivals.
Hughes survived an early onslaught by Serra in the opening frame to take both the second and third rounds en route to the decision victory. Despite the judge’s views on the bout, most spectators scored the third frame in favor of Serra following a surprising takedown and outburst of offense in the closing minute. Even Hughes was apparently swayed in favor of Serra, raising his opponent’s arm following the conclusion of the contest. However, when the only scores that matter were handed down the judges awarded the close, albeit controversial decision to Hughes with 29-28 scores across the board.
The future hall of famer Hughes improves to 43-7 on his career after bouncing back from back-to-back defeats, while Serra goes to 9-6 following two-straight losses.
Drew McFedries rebounded from back-to-back losses with a 37-second knockout of Xaview Foupa-Pokam that could send “Professor X” packing from the UFC, while Chael Connen topped Dan Miller and Frankie Edgar scored a unanimous decision over Sean Sherk in other main card bouts.
Brock Larson, Tim Hague, Kyle Bradley, Krzysztof Soszynski, Yoshiyuki Yoshida, and George Roop were victorious on the evening’s preliminary card.
The official results for UFC 98 were:
- Lyoto Machida def. Rashad Evans (c) via KO (punches) — Round 2, 3:57
UFC Light Heavyweight Championship - Matt Hughes def. Matt Serra via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
- Drew McFedries def. Xavier Foupa-Pokam via TKO (strikes) — Round 1, 0:37
- Chael Sonnen def. Dan Miller via unanimous decision(30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
- Frankie Edgar def. Sean Sherk via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
- Brock Larson def. Mike Pyle via submission (arm-triangle choke) — Round 1, 3:06
- Tim Hague def. Pat Barry via submission (guillotine choke) — Round 1, 1:43
- Kyle Bradley def. Phillipe Nover via TKO (strikes) — Round 1, 1:03
- Krzysztof Soszynski def. Andre Gusmao via TKO (strikes) — Round 1, 3:17
- Yoshiyuki Yoshida def. Brandon Wolff via submission (guillotine choke) — Round 1, 2:24
- George Roop def. Dave Kaplan via split decision (29-28, 27-30, 30-27)
Tags: Andre Gusmao, Brandon Wolff, Brock Larson, Chael Sonnen, Dan Miller, Dave Kaplan, Drew McFedries, Frankie Edgar, George Roop, Krzysztof Soszynski, kyle bradley, Lyoto Machida, Matt Hughes, Matt Serra, Mike Pyle, Pat Berry, Phillipe Nover, Rashad Evans, Sean Sherk, Tim Hague, Xavier Foupa-Pokam, Yoshiyuki Yoshida
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Absolute BS! Serra took that fight…Hughes did a great job lying on Serra the whole fight…nonsense.
Its mixed martial arts dude!!!!!
If serra is so tough, he should have got up.
He lost that fight
got up? He held Hughes on the ground so the ref would stand them up. Very obvious (and intelligent) game plan. Hughes had NO offense. He pussed out as far as I’m concerned.
dude I’m pissed…Serra should have won or it should’ve been a draw. After the first take down I really didn’t see that much from Hughes. Granted Serra was stuck for awhile but Serra was active while hughes chose to lay and pray…oh well…
I’m literally trying to figure out what offense Hughes had. Two takedowns? This isn’t Judo…It’s a fight. To me, Hughes didn’t fight. What a joke.
I guess punches to the kidneys and face don’t count as offense? Just because Serra was preventing Hughes doing his patented GnP doesn’t mean Hughes wasn’t trying to push for a finish.
Also I guess going for an RNC doesn’t count as trying to finish the fight?
Same for you
No way did Hughes win that fight. While he was laying on Serra, Serra was the one that was looking for a way to win, not just taking a rest and letting the clock run down.
Now everyone that hated Machida before the Silva and Evans fight, all aboard the bandwagon!!
i liked machida after he beat sokoju
I watched him fight David Heath in Machester and I’ll admit, I had no clue who he was at the time, but after that I was hooked.
Gotta hand it to Machida. He straight up took that title. And Hughes/Serra probably could have gone either way, but thats UFC judging for ya.
Now Evans knows how Chuck felt.
I m very happy to see Evans had a good sleep after long time.
your right Eric thats the judging for ya, Can anyone say “Hamill vs Bisping”.. Well anyways that may say a loss on Serra’s record but it doesn’t feel like a loss and I really don’t see it hurting Serra in the future .. Not like Serra has never been screwed over my the judges before. WOW Machida that guy is just a beast unbelieve now you know why Anderson Silva says the LightHeavy weight division is Machida’s …when you look at Machida’s record it’s incredible what names he has under his belt.. and when the Rampage fight comes around “No one better say Machida’s never fought someone like Rampage” “what a Wrestler with power in his hands lol”, I’m not saying Rashad is Rampage but they do have similiarites.
hey! Machida will defenatly keep the title for along time just like what he said….Rampage is no match for him…muscules (rampage) vs self control/mind and spirit(machida)winner will be machida ofcourse lol…i dont think you saw the fight (jk)….evans only landed 2 good punches in the 2nd round …Machida is a beast …GO Machida
watch the fight again, what did serra do?? He shoulda blocked hughes take downs or did something on the ground. You can expect much from a one-hit wonder
Even though Machida won,i still give Evans all the credit in the world, he fought to the end and that’s how a champion should lose his title. Congrats to Machida, he handed Evans his first lost and ko in one fight……..
Enjoy is cuz Rampage is gonna do it to you!
At the minute Machida looks unbeatable and Rampage is gunna go the same way Thiago Silva and Sugar went, down! You cant beat something you cant hit
Rampage has gotta catch him and tag him first and with Quintons bolt upright style and lead leg stuck way infront of him, I dont see it happening
greatest fight this year, that was amazing, wish serra and hughes woulda stood up but what a battle
I’m happy that Evans got KO. I bet Chuck Liddell was laughing his ass off 2 lol. The Hughes and Serra fight well in my opinion Hughes won that fight, I’m happy he did cause if he lost he would of retired and that would suck, He’s one of my favorite fighter and he deserves respect after everything he accomplished…
I’m a bitter Serra fan…tell me what Hughes did to deserve the win.
Octagon control
I mean not like ur obviously tryin not to get in a stupid arguement…
HAHA…ask my wife, I’m awesome at stupid arguements….by the way…”Octagon Control”?!?!?!? He won by octagon control???!?!?!?! Serra went after him, threw submissions after him…but Hughes had Octagon control?!?! I’m sure he’s really proud.
ya octagon control dude, such as, taking serra down multiple times, DEFENDING the submission attempts, rarely allowing serra to transition, and landing a few good jabs. he basically won a wrestling and judo match haha. but he scored more points none the less….thats MMA scoring and judging for you. Serra didnt do much besides a few decent sub attempts, one takedown, and a headbutt which doesnt mean s***. accept it….he lost. haha
what did Serra do? that fight was week all around..
WAH!! haha
Oh well, maybe he’ll drop to 155 and beat up some of them. Great night, though.
Im with you Gar.
Serra a dumb ****. what did serra do to win the fight head bunt him. serra did nothing that hole fight oh 1 take down sorry.
ha go look at the tape, hughes is one at fault for head butt, idc who won the fight just wish they woulda actually thrown some punches and done some work
i was hoping machida won and was suprised that he won. I didnt know if he could handle a punch from evans and thankfully we didnt have to find out if he could or couldnt. what was really shocking is the fact that when he ko’d rashad, machida didnt load up on the punches. they were short and sweet, I laughed when I saw rashad talk smack, then he got popped with a nice right, three punches before he was ko’d. Rashad fell really nasty and hopefully he isnt hurt. I also gained respect for rashad due to the way he handled the interview with rogan after the fight. he handled it with class and didnt make excuses. Cant wait to see rampage and machida. I think rampage has the best chance of the 205’s to beat machida. that is going to be one hell of a fight.
I wasnt impressed with either matt, and I am glad they fought, that way there is no more talking between them. krzysztof had a nice ko, and drew mcfriedes looked damn impressive. he has heavy hands and that ko was nice. sonnen looked good, and I thought he was going to get choked out early, but he got pissed after that and beat the hell out of miller.
Drew McFedries?? If that dude had any kind of takedown defense….he would be a force to deal with in the middleweight division. I really wanted to see him fight James Irvin though.
Matt Hughes won that fight but in poor fashion. Im a big Hughes fan, but he is done. He would have killed Serra when he was in his prime…now he just survived to win. I hope his last fight is against Jon Fitch.
Machida……well, he will be Champion for a long time. Sorry Rampage…you dont stand a chance.
I think the fight would have gone much the same “in his prime”. We all (you included) knew it would be a boring fight before it happened. Their styles don’t match well to make an interesting fight. The only hope was that the grudge would get the better of one of them.
Serra is too good on the ground to get GnP’d like that but not big enough or skilled enough to stop the takedown.
The only way I see this fight ending any way other than a decision is for one of them to seriously mess up or abandon their defense in hopes of a strong finish.
Rampage has no chance against Machida. Rampage will be to agressive leading to his downfall.
I think Hughes no doubt won that fight, though definitely not in an exciting fashion. What did Serra really have to offer, outside of some good defense? He hurt Hughes with an illegal (but unintentional) head to the chin, followed by a punch to the back of the head. The punch to the back of the head was also unintentional, and I couldn’t tell if that was even hard enough to hurt Hughes or it was all the head to the chin that rocked him. While Hughes wasn’t that exciting or able to finish the fight, I do have to give it to him for pushing through after getting rocked really bad, and grinding out a win, as unexciting as it was.
That said, I think Hughes should retire. He would have dominated Serra in the past, and if he can’t now then I don’t see him doing much more in that division. A little part of me wants to believe if he wasn’t rocked it might have been a lot different, but I don’t know that it would have been.
Back in 1985 Ralph Macchio made karate cool, and thousands of youngsters flooded the dojos. Lyoto Machida just made karate cool again. And I’m no longer ashamed to admit that when I was 12 I bought a how-to book of karate (which I failed at miserably).
Welcome to the Lyoto Machida era. Good stuff.
haha best comment yet
What was with Matt Hughes immidiately announcing that he is now a free agent and then immidiately backtracking and saying he would fight nowhere but with the UFC? I just thought his entire post-fight interview was very ackward.
Dude was prob. still rocked…prob. didnt hurt that dana was stareing him down either.
“Evans falls to 13-1-1″
Minor, but it is 18-1-1.
Cheers.
I fixed that, thanks.
Suprisingly great night of fights.Evens/machida reminded me of to dogs eating out of the same dish with occational aggresive outbusts.Love the finish.As far as hughes/serra,i thought it could of gone either way,hughes had a few take downs and serra the great defense,so it was tough to judge.I personally didn’t like the outcome.But like everybody is saying thats the ufc for ya.
I’m always saying how Evans needs to prove himsel and all that kind of stuff, but man. I’m changing my tune. I know the fight only went to the 2nd, but i’m very impressed with Evans even though he got ko’d for the first time. When Machida was unloading on him, Evans although dazed and “rocked”, still kept swinging and fioghting to regain stability, he kept going until he got put down completely. I love a guy who doesn’t give up, a lot of times we’ve seen guys take a punch and just go down,no Evans went down like a true champ….i don’t believe in that crap that you “have to defend your title to be a true champ” crap,Evans was the champ coming n period, i admire how he lost.
Lyoto Machida, man his punches are super fast and they carry more knock out power than i thought. Despite what Greg Jackson said after the fight, i felt that Rashad had a greater chance of victory if he would have tried taking Machida down. Evans is not a pure striker and his base is not striking like Machida,Evans base is wrestling, so maybe he would have still lost if he took Machida, or tried to take him down, but i feel he had a better chance if he would have gone in that direction rather than try to counter strike a karate master.
People are already saying that Machida will do the same to Rampage..?
Rampage is not Evans, Rampage is a striker that has way better standup and counter punches than Evans, Rampage is not as wuick as Evans or Machida, but carries ko power in both hands and in his counter punches as well. It’s gonna be a different story when he fights Rampage because Rampage can take a big punch and at the same time counter punch with more power than Machida. Before all you Machida fans start saying that Rampage has no chance, Machida has never been “rocked” or been hit hard period, Rampage will for sure get him with some punches and we’ll see if Machida can take a big punch or not. Machida is a ver tough guy to figure out, but he’s gona get ko’d by Rampage.
First of all let me say WOW. Machida showed me that he’s the **** dude. What an amazing performance! The way he was able to move in and out, and his punch accuaracy was just awesome dude. HE worked evans like no one has and did so without taking more than like 1 ahot. Cudos to machida. I have to admit, i’ve never been a machida fan but now i can see why he’s the champ. I’m not a rasahd fan and i’m hella happy rashad has been silenced and humbled, but like MARVELKNIGHT said. He went out like a champ dude. If that was FRANKLIN,TITO,MARQUARDT,IRVING,JARDINE, orsome other fighter, then they would have bittched out after the first shot and just dropped down before taking any more damage. Rashad, stood there and got his ass kicked till he was in “never never land” and dammit dude i dig that! Rashad getting ko’d in fashion has made me a rashad fan.
What marvel said about rashad not being a pure striker @ heart is true dude. Not taking anything away from machida, i’m justsaying that RAMPAGE isn’t RASHAD and that they’re fight is going to be a completely different fight. I can’t honestly say how i see RAMPAGE beating machida but rampage is my boy and all he needs is one solid shot and the fights over. I guess we’ll see.
As for hughes and serra, hughes hella won even though he just sean sherked him. He dominated serra and even though it wasn’t entertaining, he won dude. DId you guys see the “terror” about to cry?
haha damn i love when dickheads who talk **** have to eat there words after they get their ass kicked *cough bj cough cough*.
Drew Mcfredries is the **** and i can pretty much always count on him for a sick ass ko dude!
I definitely wouldn’t say he got his ass kicked. He got layed on for about 15 minutes. At least he came to fight.
DUDES!!!!!!
I just got back in town and say the fights!! DUDE!!
Well Machida has fought and beat someone in the top LHW now and Now is #1
I agree Rashad went out like a champ!! I didn’t see the interviews but if you gotta go out go out swinging!!
Jazzok I agree he should have tried to take him down instead of trying to catch him IMO…
Rampage is my boy but boyyyy ohh boyyy he better train super hard for this one!!!
The fight I want to see is Shogun and Machida, Cause Shogun has been humbled and is focused and is back to the level he was at in 2005-2007. In my opinion he has the best chance to hand Machida a defeat than anybody out there at Lightheavy right now. He has recovered from his knee surgeries and is in shape and he is actually more athletic than Machida and it will be great to see these two stare each other down, but the question for him is can he use his style and get inside and make machida shootfight. Rampage does has a punchers chance but he must prove to be able to take a hit and make it into a slugfest and put Machida in a ground and pound but Machida has such quick hands that I dont know if Rampage will get close enough to do that.
Dude how does Rampage have to prove he can take a hit? It took Wanderlei Silva 22 knees to drop Rampage, so i’m sure whatever Machida brings, it won’t be knew punching power that Rampage hasn’t already seen.
We should be asking, how will Machida take a hard shot to the chin, because we havn’t seen that yet.
“Take a hit” is a relative term to me… Its all (or mostly) in the mechanics.
Knees are not the best way to go for a KO. Most often, the fighter keeps his chin tucked in such a way that a knee wont KO him. It might turn his face to burger pretty quick, but it wont KO. The KO from a knee usually happens when the fighter is trying to escape the knee and it tags him on the button, mostly out of luck.
I do believe Rampage has a solid chin and can “take a punch”, but Machida has accuracy and speed like a falcon. Accuracy + speed = more KO’s than anything else.
I dont like all the references to “KO Power” the announcers use. It makes it sound like strength (power) is the key factor to a KO.
hahahah dude shogun is a joke machida would definitely ko him!!!!only person he can beat is a washed up fighter!!!!
and congrats to matt hughes for laying on top of serra the whole night to earn the victory!!!!yah you are the best!!!!
Lawls… I called Machida more then a year ago to be dominant champ. Thats how good I am ****es.
You called it over a year ago? WOW man, you must really know your stuff
You guys see the SINGLE KICK THAT RASHAD LANDED IN THE WHOLE FIGHT. LAwlolollrofflemao.. he landed a single clean kick in the second round everything else was blocked.
Just imagine what happens when we find out Machida has an iron chin ON TOP of everything else.
Guys when it comes to the HUghs fight in rnd 3 hugh controlled 3.30 to 4 min of the round. A single takedown and minute of control at the end of the round does not win you a round unless your takedown and subsequent beats are extreme. Serra sure wern’t. Meither was Hughs but at least Hughs had unimpressive control for longer periods of time then Serra did.
Everyone seems to forget the Taledown that Serra scored in the third too. That along with some submission attempts, id say the 3rd was pretty even.
***Takedown***
ALL HE DID WAS LAY THERE!!! IT WAS A JOKE OF A FIGHT!!!
All they both did was lay there aside from 1 or 2 punches in the first. Matt was on top the most. He wins.
i really didn’t get evens game plan all he did was dance about and get picked apart, cant wait for rampage to put i stop to this guy hes a one trick poney imo, (a very good one trick pony) but im sure page will send him to sleep, serra looked better then hughes but i think the headbutt took alot outa hughes, also i dont fight or really try to lose weight (i should do lol) but if i was ide eat pasta so i dont get why serra cant eat pasta?? wat the hell does he eat then?? (when in training)
Alright mate.
I’m a natural Heavyweight but I cut down to 205 and have even been to 185. I cant touch foods like pasta either.
Pasta is full of carbs which don’t get me wrong, it is great for energy. Best time to eat carbs would be before midday and an hour before training/workout, with a small amount after a work out with Protein. But when you are cutting weight, you cant have too many carbs. Carbs require a lot of cardio to burn off. Potato, Pasta, Rice… they are all the same. If you don’t burn those carbs off, they will turn to fat in your body very quickly. If you ever wanna drop some pounds, Steamed veg like Broccoli, Spinach and Carrots along with steamed Tuna or Salmon is the perfect way to go.
Not only that, when the Italians (like Serra) order Pasta, it isnt just on its own, its usually with meatballs, or a cheese sauce! lol
I dunno why I went into so much detail? lol
First off… I’m not just jumping on the bandwagon, I’m on record here before a number of times…
THE DRAGON is a NINJA.
Until someone finds him, no one else can pretend that they are in the picture at 205. I’m personally not very surprised by the outcome against Rashad, though I was a little surprised that Rashad elected to stand and trade with Machida. I know that Rashad has made his bones with his stand-up, but I really expected him to go GSP-style, shoot early and often, and try to work his wrestling base to G&P Machida. I guess he and camp Jackson weren’t as convinced of Lyoto’s skill, or thought Rashad’s quickness would be an advantage, or were trying to drag Lyoto into deeper water… in any case, lesson learned… don’t follow a NINJA around.
Bad news at light heavy? I actually think that Lyoto may have just beaten the 2nd best 205er in the world in Evans. I really think that Rashad compares favorably to the rest of the weight class. I just don’t see anyone at the top of that division giving the Dragon a lot of trouble. Almost all of them are too willing to stand and trade. Rampage has the best chance, IMO, IF he is ready to try and close the distance, take Lyoto down and try to work G&P. Still, I’m not sure if any of those elements will work (may not be able to close the distance without being caught, may not be able to take him down once he gets there, may not be able to do any damage, as the Dragon is a BJJ BB). BUT, I think we know how that fight will end if Jackson tries to stand up with Machida. Let’s face it, if Forest Griffin could pick him apart, he doesn’t want any of the Dragon.
Although Demian Miaia might make in interesting fight, but he’ll have to take some damage to get close.
Miaia has poor stand up skills so I dont know how well that would test Machida.
Point taken… and I agree Maia would have difficulty getting inside, and may well get KTFO in the process. The thing I like about Maia’s chances is that unlike most of the other contenders at 205, Maia would not try to stand and trade with Machida, and would completely sell out trying to get it to the ground… which is the only place I think Machida can be beaten.
Maia also fights at MW, not likely he’ll be fighting at LHW any time soon.
guess it pays to drink your pe.epe.e with your morning cheerios
hahahaha!!!!!thats insane that he does that but it seems to work for him
fedor asks:
how tastes my pee pee dragon warrior.
sorry,
couldn’t resist.
seriously,
shogun in shape has tools beyond what lyoto has seen.
forrest has a good reach and style…
rampage i think will kill forrest next time,
but don’t see him matching well against lyoto.
i’ve long since believed the machida hype, but also think that even in this fight there was a close call for machida with some vicious rights from rashad, machida backed out without much damage but if that exchange played out 10 times machida would have gone to sleep a couple of those times.
nobody is THAT much better than anyone at this level.
plus, machida is starting to get figured out so at least the next few guys are going to know about his leg sweeps, unusual combos, distance etc. maybe someone is going to close the distance and live to win the fight.
and if you think he can be boring, STFU and watch WWF
whoever follows my instructions will beat Machida:
1-clinch and ground and pound.
2-be ready for his counter-punch when u are throwing your punch.
3-let him come to u and THEN throw some kicks without letting him breathe.
4-a cup of fresh peeepeee as soon as u r up
sorry couldnt resist
Matt Hughes is a washed up has-been who’s fights were boring at best even when he has on top of his game. His questionable victory over Matt Serra at the weekend was down to sheer sentiment on behalf of the judges. He had zero offense and was almost finished at the beginning and end of a fight that Matt Serra can consider himself a very unlucky loser but in my opionion a moral victor.
ok jpmm washed up?? im pretty sure he won idk wat you meant by that??
it was a close fight.
matt’s still easily top 10.
i suspect that the headbutt was considered to be just an accident serra’s best moment was overuled. not counting that opening flurry i’m not sure serra even won the 1st – i actually think he did better in the 3rd but lost the first 2. i’d go with a draw but give it to hugh’s if i had to pick
it was very competitive fight . even if hughes retires you’ll see that anyone wanting to become top 5 will have to get through serra and most won’t at this point – disrespect hugh’s caliber you disrespect the sport
gibor,
youu first, let us know how it tastes,
drink your own, just a suggestion,
sorry couldn’t resist