Lyoto Machida has signed with Bellator shortly after his UFC contract expired and he became a free agent. There are a couple of interesting match ups available to him in his new promotion, with the 40-year-old stating that he’s willing to compete in multiple divisions.
“Lyoto told me one thing, he wanted to fight in both weight classes, and he wanted to stay busy and will fight anybody,” Scott Coker told MMA Fighting.
“We have a good 205 lb division for him to compete in, and we have good 185’ers for him to compete with. I think that one of the fights I’d love to see is maybe the winner of Gegard vs Rory fight at some point next year.”
According to the Bellator President, Machida did mention a specific opponent he’d be willing to move up two weight classes for.
“He told me he wants to fight Fedor as well, so we’ll see,” he said. “We have a lot of good fights ahead for him.
“Let’s see how Fedor comes out in the tournament. He’s got his hands full with Chael, and if he becomes the champ, and Lyoto wants to fight Fedor, why not? Why wouldn’t we put that fight together? It would be a lot of fun.”
Would you be interested in seeing a former UFC light heavyweight champ vs former PRIDE heavyweight champ? Bellator has been open to these kinds of fun match ups between veterans and fan favorites, and I’m honestly all for this match up. It’s a perfect senior-circuit, throwback style bout, and it would be much more interesting to me than all those unoriginal and unnecessary rematches they’ve been booking.
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