After the extremely controversial conclusion to their five-round title bout at UFC 104 last night, top light heavyweight stars Mauricio “Shogun” Rua and Lyoto “The Dragon” Machida have already verbally agreed to a rematch according to UFC President Dana White, who made the announcement in the hours after the event.

Machida escaped with a close but Unanimous Decision in a judges’ verdict that was soundly booed by the audience and harshly criticised by fans online, as Rua appeared to have won a minimum of three rounds.

Machida (now 16-0-0) retained his UFC Light Heavyweight Championship, but seemed certain that he had lost the fight prior to the reading of the scorecards. He could be seen hanging his head while a jubilant Rua smiled and raised his hands in what he – and the vast majority of the viewing audience – thought was a clear victory.

Instead, Rua (now 18-4-0) had his title hopes snatched away from him by judges Nelson Hamilton, Cecil Peoples and Marcos Rosales, who returned identical scores of 48-47, all for Machida. MMARising.com scored the fight 49-46 for Rua.

The first three rounds of the fight were very close, but Rua appeared to have done enough to take at least one of the rounds, if not two. Some feel that he won all three.

Rounds four and five were all Rua, as his relentless attack of leg and body kicks wore down the champion and reduced Machida to a slow and predictable version of his normally quick and dominant self. Rua handily won the final two rounds, but the judges somehow scored the opening three rounds for Machida, who kept his title in the process.

Keenly aware of the instant and passionate backlash that followed the fight – so much so that some top MMA e-zines experienced server crashes for over an hour after the event’s conclusion – White acted swiftly in seeking a rematch between Rua and Machida, which will presumably happen as quickly as possible.

He confirmed that both fighters had agreed to the bout in a Twitter post in the hours following the post-fight press conference.

Fans are often critical of White and the UFC as a whole, and such criticisms are sometimes justified, but White appeared to be genuinely disappointed with the fight’s outcome and the live crowd’s immediate and fiercely negative reaction.

While it is unlikely that the bout’s outcome will be overturned, perhaps a rematch between the two top-notch fighters will definitively determine which fighter truly deserves to hold the belt.

If last night was a true indication, and it certainly appeared to be, that man is Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, whose stock rose exponentially even though his hand was not raised at the end of the night.