In the second installment of Throwdown the forum members weigh-in on the upcoming UFC 104 battle for the light heavyweight championship.  Mauricio "Shogun" Rua will challenge Lyoto "The Dragon" Machida for the belt in one of the deepest divisions that mixed martial arts has to offer. 

As always, these are actual forum posts by actual forum members.  I get it started as "mike5k" then members "Ceelarence", "Thom", and "D_V" break it down.  Sign up now and tell us what you think in our comments sections or better yet, right in our forum.  Maybe your post will be chosen for the next Forum Throwdown article.

mike5k- Shogun appeared to be back in his last fight but the fight was against Liddell who is a shell of his former self. If he is in fact the Shogun of old, he's capable of beating anyone in the division but I'm just not sold yet and Machida has been a monster. I have Machida by UD.

Ceelarence- Machida has great elusiveness and a counter attack. Shogun has a great counter attack as well but his imposing game is a lot stronger than his counter game. I believe that Shogun is just as good of a striker if not better than Machida. I still believe that Machida is overrated and that will be shown against Shogun. His kicks are brutal and his knees as well. Shogun also has the much more evolved ground game whereas Machida has yet to show that side. Granted Machida does have a BJJ black belt. That really doesn't mean much these days in MMA; they hand out BB like candy. Shogun has showed and utlilized his skills and done it very well. I believe Shogun is going to handle Machida. I cant wait for this fight just to shut up all of the Machida bandwagoners who think he's the best since he beat Thiago Silva.

Thom- Very well stated mike. I gotta be honest, I don't think Shogun has a chance in this fight and here's why... Shogun is not Shogun anymore.
He looked better in his last fight, but I wasn't super impressed, who isn't KO'ing Liddell these days?  The guy's coming off some serious knee injurys and there's no way he's still as explosive as he used to be.
He looked very average against Forrest and down right bad against Coleman. I love Shogun, but the PRIDE Shogun is gone.
All that said, I'm not convinced that even the "former" Shogun could beat Machida. This guy is the best defensive fighter I've ever seen. He literally does not get hit. Anderson Silva has stated more than once that he has major problems against him when they spar and he's the best striker in the world imo. Shogun won't be able to hit Machida... to be honest, breaking down this fight, I don't see where Shogun is better.
I'd give Machida the edge in striking simply based on his defensive prowess and his recent offensive breakouts against Thiago Silva and Rashad Evans; and certainly if you take each man's last three fights it would be no question who was the better striker. (If you don't think this guy's an elite offensive striker go back and watch his fight against Rich Franklin)
Grappling should be no question. Machida is a high level judoka who out-wrestled Tito Ortiz. He definitely gets the edge here.
The ground game's a wash imo.