Lyoto Machida vs. Phil Davis Booked For UFC 163 In Rio

The plot in the UFC‘s Light-Heavyweight division thickens, with the recent announcement that Lyoto Machida will be squaring off against Phil Davis at UFC 163. The event, scheduled to take place in Rio on August 3rd, is headlined by the blockbuster title fight between Jose Aldo and Anthony Pettis.

The news, announced by Portaldovaletudo.uol.com, wasn’t exactly what I was expecting for Machida. ‘The Dragon’ was most recently in action at UFC 157 where he beat the number one contender at the time in Dan Henderson.

I would have personally liked to see Glover Teixeira take on Machida, but we can’t have what we want all the time. So what does this fight have to offer the fans? In my opinion, Machida is a bad match up for Davis. I was speaking to a good friend earlier about the importance of elusiveness in MMA. My feeling is that TDD is great, but if you can get out of the way, you expend less energy and enable counter strikes.

Don’t get me wrong, MMArtists need take down defense, but guys like Machida hardly use it. His counter knees are wrestler kryptonite, and Davis is predominantly a wrestler. Although his striking has improved, it isn’t anything compared to Machida’s. I can’t see this going Phil Davis‘ way.

Obviously there are no easy fights in the UFC, and MMA math goes wrong all the time, but it just feels like Davis is made for Machida. The phrase ‘squash match’ gets thrown around far too much these days anyhow.

And what about ranking implications? With the LHW division getting more and more congested at the top, it’s probably not going to do much. There are a lot of questions that need answering at 205 right now, and this fight leaves no clues.