A middleweight fight between Lyoto Machida and Luke Rockhold is in the works for later this year at an as yet unspecified event.
Machida is coming off a unanimous decision loss in his bid to take the middleweight title from Chris Weidman.
The former light-heavyweight champion did have his moments in that encounter with the champion though and he still believes that a few good wins could earn him a second shot at the belt. Given that he’s still ranked No.2 in the division that seems like a fair assessment.
Rockhold also has title aspirations and will enter into this bout with back-to-back wins over Tim Boetsch and Costas Philippou.
Apart from a KO loss to current title contender Vitor Belfort, the former Strikeforce middleweight champion hasn’t tasted defeat in seven years, beating the likes of Tim Kennedy and Ronaldo ‘Jacare’ Souza along the way which has left him placed at No.5 in the division.
It’ll be interesting to see where the UFC ends up placing this fight. It’s certainly good enough to be placed on a pay-per-view main card, but it’s also not out of the question that it’ll serve as a headliner for an upcoming ‘Fight Night’ event and it’d be perfect for the final ‘UFC On FOX’ show in December.
