Former light-heavyweight champion is rumored to be returning to action againt Derek Brunson at UFC Fight Night 119 in Sao Paulo, Brazil on October 28th.
The 39-year-old Machida has been out of action for the past two years, having served an 18-month suspension after declaring that he had used a substance that was subsequently found to be an illegal anabolic agent.
Prior to his suspension Machida was coming off back-to-back defeats, having been submitted by Luke Rockhold and then KO’d by Yoel Romero, so the pressure is going to be on Machida to shrug off any potential ring rust and break his losing streak.
He’ll have to do so against the 33-year-old Brunson, who is coming off a KO win over Dan Kelly back in June.
Prior to that, Brunson suffered losses to two of the middleweight division’s leading lights, former champion Anderson Silva and current interim titleholder Robert Whittaker.
Machida Vs Brunson isn’t officially announced yet, but would be joining a card that includes a light-heavyweight match-up between Glover Teixeira and Misha Cirkunov.