Machida will destroy him.

lyoto machida is gonna win i suspect. haven't heard much about rua, but from what i've seen of machida, his style is way too weird for fighters to get comfortable with.

If I were a betting man I would say Machida....but as ya'll pointed out..one shot could end it either way....I don't watch a lot of MMA, I am more a boxing fan but I have to admit the guys like GSP, m\Machida, Anderson Silva spike my interest...they seem to bring more of martial mindset to the party...very aggressive but not sloppy...pick you apart, cerebral assasins....interesting!

Should be a really good match up, but my money's on Machida as well.

Machida is much more than BJJ...he actually touts his shotokan karate training as one of the key elements that make him succesful. He mentioned on the TV show Inside MMA that his abiity to fuse Shotokan with the skills ets of MMA has given him an unorthodox quirky style that is very difficult for fighters to pick up on, thus far he is dead right!.  Machida has been involved with shotokan karate for years and believes it is a solid entity and a must in his training. More power to him...either way the guy can bang!

There is no way in hell that Machida won that fight..I watched, and replayed it twice last night...Rua took it to him big time...Machida looked the worse for ware..I had it 49 46 for Rua...and I was rotting for Machida, but he did not win! Not in my humble opinion.

I do understand why people watch these fights, I say I DO! OK? So what Im going to say is not to be taken the wrong way. Remember, I DO understand. I haven't watched a football game in... well the last time was the Superbowl of 1989. That was because I was in England and it was great to see my English girlfriend watch her first REAL FOOTBAL game. The reason I haven't watched a UFC fight after the 4th one ( I said UFC # 4 ) is because I've spent the better part of my life in MA's. And until I studied BJJ under Carlos Machado I thought (or knew in my mind ) that I could handle myself in any situation. I now realize that, in order to KNOW, as much as can be known, you must die in a fight. So the only alternative to that is to fight with the following rules, or lack of.  No weight class, no style class, no time limit of ANY kind, no rounds. AND no bitting, no eye gouging, and the only way for the fight to be stopped is by one or both fighters being KO'ed (not technical, I mean unconscious ) or by Tap Out. If you watched the First UFC, if I remember correctly, in the first fight, the ref syopped the fight because a fighter got his teeth kicked out. The Ref and the UFC broke their own rules in the very first event. Then came New Rules that hendered all grapplers. Just how I see it.