Last year when the unbeaten Lyoto Machida faced off against fellow Brazillian Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, no one expected the eventual outcome of the fight.

During the fight Shogun discoved and exposed the cracks in Machida’s almost impenetrable game.  Machida had never lost a round in his 15 pro fights, but Shogun broke apart his game with leg kicks and tenacity.

However the Los Angeles crowd mostly reacted with disbelief when Machida won the unanimous decision with identical 48-47 edges on all three judge’s scorecards.  Dana White even disagreed with the decision so he did something about it.  He ordered a rematch almost immediately following the fight.

A good sportsman Shogun is, he didn’t let the decision get him worked up.

“This is all in the past for me right now,” Rua said through a translator. “And what gives me comfort is the fact that I’m having another shot at a title, and I’ll fight for the world championship again.”

The pressure is on Machida in the rematch to prove he’s still a confounding opponent. Machida, who had surgery on his left hand one week after the victory, has studied everything from sumo to boxing, yet he built his streak of eight consecutive UFC wins on a game grounded in the traditional martial arts, rather than wrestling.

“There’s not too much that’s going to change,” Machida said. “I’ve worked on certain areas of my game to improve, but for the most part I’m going to come in and apply my strategy. … The great thing about the rematch is that we’re both a lot more familiar with each other than we were the first time we met, so I think it just makes the chance all that much greater for a better fight this time around.”

Rua spent six months training for Machida last year, and he ratcheted up his work level for the rematch, even perhaps getting a head start while Machida recovered from surgery.

“I’m training for all situations so I can get no surprises when the fight starts,” Rua said. “But actually I have to also think on different game plans and different approaches to the fight in case Lyoto comes up with something different. I have to be prepared.”

Rua largely hurt Machida with a nonstop attack of leg kicks, preventing much of Machida’s unorthodox style from ever getting off the ground. Yet such a strategy sometimes doesn’t show up on the scorecards in MMA, where judges must weight multiple disciplines and methods of showing progress in a match.

Some judges highly value leg kicks, which were used by Jose Aldo and Matt Hughes in recent weeks to dominate fights. Other judges aren’t impressed by the kicks, which cause soreness and movement-hindering bruises, but no blood or drama.

Rua would love to see more concrete guidelines for scoring such an attack, since he clearly got little benefit from the strategy at Staples Center.

“I don’t think about controversy or any thoughts or what happened, because I think this can only hinder an athlete,” Rua said. “The fight sometimes doesn’t end really as the fans want, because it’s not easy to do whatever you want. Obviously I always fight trying to look for a knockout, and that’s what I’ll do again. But Lyoto is a great fighter, so it’s not an easy thing to achieve.”