Looking back on his three-round clash with Lyoto Machida, Rafael Carvalho sees a few things he could have done differently to make sure his hand was the one that got raised.
But Carvalho (15-3 MMA, 6-2 BMMA) believes what he did should have still been enough to earn him the nod that Machida (25-8 MMA, 1-0 BMMA) took in split fashion in their Bellator 213 co-headliner.
“It was clear that I won Round 1,” Carvalho told MMAjunkie. “The second one I may have won by a small margin, but I still won. And the third one, he undeniably won, because of the takedown and all. But it’s what my master says, you can’t leave it up to the judges. So I made that mistake, of leaving it up to them.
“Not that I made a mistake – it’s just, dealing with a dangerous fighter like Lyoto, you can’t just go in there carelessly, thinking you’ve got it in the bag. But, now, it’s about picking up the pieces and moving forward, because life goes on.”
After reviewing the bout, Carvalho believes he could have done a little more to ensure an emphatic win. “I was able to nullify his game in several moments,” Carvalho said, and maybe pushing it with his muay Thai a little more and more freely, not worrying as much about Machida’s counter-attacks, could have sealed it for him.
He was still confident he’d won heading into the scorecards, though, and remains puzzled that it wasn’t the case.
“I have no words to express it, because I don’t know the criteria the refs use nowadays,” Carvalho said. “You can’t tell what they’re thinking, what type of fight that they watch. The athlete who moves backward wins, and the one who’s moving forward and pursuing the fight more isn’t winning. So you can’t tell which fight they’re watching. If they’re really paying attention to the event, I don’t know. I can’t tell. I can’t have that perception.
“… I believe maybe Lyoto, himself, might not believe that he won this fight. It’s tough. It’s tough to say, because the way it was – I’m not taking away from Lyoto’s merits, not at all. But I haven’t come to terms with the way the judges saw it.”
It would appear, however, that Machida isn’t quite on board with that. After the Dec. 15 bout co-headliner, which streamed on DAZN from Neal S. Blaisdell Center in Honolulu, the former UFC champion told reporters backstage that he, too, was confident he’d done enough.
“I was sure I won,” Machida said. “The only thing that he did was he punched my face in the first round.”
It was a hell of a punch, though, as it left a bloodied-up Machida navigating the remaining rounds with a visibly broken nose. And that, it turns out, is another thing that gave Carvalho pause.
“I saw his nose was crooked, bleeding abundantly,” Carvalho said. “In other cases, the doctor, when they go in, they stop the fight (to preserve) the integrity of the athlete. And that’s another thing that’s complicated. Say it was with me, maybe they would have made a different decision.
“I don’t want to say things without proof, or raise false (suspicion), but it’s strange. Because in any other event, when they see the athlete broke their nose, the doctor promptly says, ‘There’s no way, stop this,’ so as not to make it worse.”
Carvalho doesn’t want to get too conspiratorial, as he can’t be sure of his suspicions. But, asked whether he believed that Machida’s name value could have played a part, he answered affirmatively.
“It was Lyoto’s debut,” Carvalho said. “I’ll give you a fight as an example: (middleweight champion Gegard Mousasi’s) debut fight. His eye was totally closed, the doctor comes in, takes a look – many things go through your head.”
Carvalho’s feelings notwithstanding, the official result was a loss. And now, seven months after a title-costing first-round knockout to Mousasi, the ex-champ rides the first skid of his career.
The good news is that, in what was also a bit of a career first, Carvalho left the three-round bout uninjured. And, though the plan for now is to spend some time relaxing with his family, he’s already planning on a relatively quick return, by April or May.
And that might come with some news.
“I’m going over my options and, who knows, I might move up a division,” Carvalho said.
Considering the notoriously lengthy Carvalho missed weight for the meeting with Machida, one could assume that this was the cause for the possible move. Carvalho, however, points out that he only missed by a small, 0.5-pound margin and that factors like travel, promotional obligations and a small two-day window to cut weight played a part.
Mostly, he says, it’s about testing himself in an entirely new weight class. Carvalho says he’s still going to sit down with his team and weigh pros and cons before deciding, but he says he already has a volunteer to meet him should he pull the trigger.
“(Muhammad ‘King Mo’ Lawal) said, ‘Move up to 205. You’re tall. You’ll be strong and fast,’” Carvalho said. “He said, ‘If you move up, I’ll fight you.’ I said ‘Cool, it’s a deal, then.’”
Having held the Bellator title once, Carvalho says thoughts of re-claiming gold will be inevitable down the line, as wins happen. But he’s under no illusions that a simple return to the win column will get him right back in that mix.
“It’s what I always say: I don’t mind having to do this walk all over again,” Carvalho said. “To climb to the top of the mountain. I don’t fuss over it. Maybe that’s even better for me, to go step by step, respecting those who are in front of me.”
For complete coverage of Bellator 213, check out the MMA Eventssection of the site.
from MMAjunkie http://bit.ly/2V5t36W
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