Pictured: Lyoto “The Dragon” Machida celebrates his 2008 victory over Tito Ortiz. Machida defends his title for the second time against Mauricio Rua tomorrow night.

The clock is ticking on one of the most anticipated UFC rematches in recent memory.  The first fight resulted in a controversial decision- one that most fans thought that Rua had won, and also saw the aura of “unbeatable” that Machida had developed slowly disappear round by round.

For all of Machida’s praises as being elusive and a master strategist, it was actually Rua that that was the elusive one in the first fight and the one who seemed to have finally developed a solid strategy and possibly solved the puzzle that is Machida.  The question that is on most fans’ minds now is whether Rua can be at a minimum equally as effective in the rematch.

Machida is an anomoly.  He’s made a career out of fighting top competition and not only winning but coming out on the other end of high profile fights simply looking like he just had a workout at the gym and not locked in a cage with one of the most dangerous men on the planet.

Machida has also successfully made the transition from “boring fighter” by most casual fans opinions to one of the most exciting fighters in the division.  Part of the hype also can be attributed to a fans desire to see if anyone can figure out the elusive fighter.

In the first fight Rua developed an effective strategy against Machida.  Machida fought with the same effective style of being evasive and then all of a sudden rushing his opponent and landing hard strikes and then almost instantly popping back out of range before his opponent could land a punch.  The difference was that virtually all of Machida’s strikes were blocked by Rua and as he retreated, it was Rua that landed the hard strikes in the form of kicks to the body and legs and the occasional punch to the head.

For all of Rua’s effectiveness in the fight, the judges simply didn’t feel the same way.  I can only fathom that this occurred partly because of Machida’s presence in the cage and the fact that he was controlling when and where the exchanges took place.  If you weren’t paying attention to the strikes that were landed, it would seem like Machida was controlling the fight and the more busy of the two fighters.

This is something that Rua will have to account for in the rematch.  If the fight goes to the judges, Rua will have to be much more agressive in this fight which is a whole new risk in itself.  Machida is a great counter striker and one of the most accurate strikers in the sport.  One of Rua’s most dangerous attributes in his career has been his clinch game and it will be interesting to see if he employs that in this fight as Machida has never been in the clinch with someone as effective as Rua.

If the fight takes place on the mat, your guess is as good as mine. Both fighters are very dangerous grapplers. I would imagine that a grappling affair between the two would be a stalemate and the fighters would get stood up.

As MMA fans, we don’t realize how good we have it sometimes. Tomorrow night we get to see one of the most anticipated rematches of our time between two of the best LHW’s of all time and I for one can’t wait to watch.

In my mind, Rua clearly won the first fight and at the very least is forcing Machida to possibly change his gameplan and strategy for the rematch.  They are both great fighters and if I were a wagering man I’d probably pass on this one.  While most agree that it’s Machida’s opponents that have the onus of trying to solve the riddle that is his style, for this fight Machida will have to do the same for Rua.  I think that Rua is just a great fighter in all aspects no matter where the fight takes place and at this point in his career has proven to be a master strategist as well.  Rua will be much more agressive in this fight and I look for him to finish Machida and hand him the first loss of his career via TKO.