Dave Meltzer - If you expected that Phil Davis would watch his fight with Lyoto Machida from Aug. 3 in Rio de Janeiro, and expect him to agree with the consensus opinion, well, that didn’t happen.
Although virtually every poll, the vast majority of media reports, UFC President Dana White and television analyst Brian Stann had the fight scored 30-27 for Machida, the judges favored the former NCAA champion by straight 29-28 scores. The win was based on Davis scoring late takedowns in the first and second round.
Davis accepts the win as legitimate, and has no interest in Machida’s camp challenge of a rematch, this time going five rounds instead of three.
"I have 12 wins, 11 wins (Davis’ record is 12-1 with 1 no contest), all those guys want rematches," Davis said on Monday’s MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani. "You’re not the first person who wants a rematch. You fight every fight like this. You fight close fights. Name one fight that he didn’t finish where he beat the crap out of somebody."
The fight would be a tough sell as a five-round main event because the first fight was a lackluster, although it was a very typical Machida style fight. If anything, what happened in the fight was very predictable, right up until the judges read the scores.
"You live by that sword, you die by that sword," said Davis. "When you habitually leave it to the judges, that strategy will fail you. I can’t say it any other way."
