Saturday at UFC Fight Night 30 in Manchester, England Lyoto Machida made his Middleweight debut against Mark Munoz. Machida was coming off a controversial decision loss to Phil Davis at UFC 163 and looking for a fresh start in a new division. The UFC matched him with fifth ranked Munoz who was coming off a dominant unanimous decision victory over over Tim Boetsch at UFC 162.
The former Light Heavyweight champion took little time to leave his mark on the division as he dispatched of Munoz in just over 3 minutes. The Dragon had started hitting Munoz with kicks to the body early in the fight. Once his opponent got used to the lower attack, Machida went high and sent a kick right through Munoz’s guard to get the KO win.
The UFC hasn’t stated yet what will be next for either fighter, but on the UFC post-fight show on FS2 they took a poll that included Machida alongside Ronaldo Souza and Vitor Belfort for the next 185 lb. contender. Whoever the UFC chooses to challenge for the title next will have to wait until after UFC 168 where Anderson Silva will attempt to reclaim his title from Chris Weidman.
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