A featured light heavyweight bout is expected to take place at UFC 163 coming up in August when former champion Lyoto Machida faces former NCAA champion Phil Davis in Brazil.
The fight was reported on Monday by MMAWeekly.com, with verbal agreements in place for the 205-pound showdown taking place on the card headlined by featherweight champion Jose Aldo facing Anthony Pettis.
Following his last fight at UFC 157 in February, which ended in a win over Dan Henderson, Lyoto Machida was expected to be the new No. 1 contender for the UFC light heavyweight title. Unfortunately for him, the current champion remains Jon Jones, and their last fight ended with Machida losing by submission in one of the most memorable finishes in recent UFC history.
Machida‘s loss to Jones, coupled with a close and somewhat unexciting fight against Henderson in February, seems to have bumped him back in line in the contender’s race, but he will still get the chance to fight at home in Brazil for his next bout.
Hoping to add his own name to the list of top contenders in the division, Phil Davis jumps back into the deep end at light heavyweight after picking up wins over Wagner Prado and Vinny Magalhaes in the last year.
Davis has been looked at as one of the best prospects at 205-pounds for the last few years, with a tremendous wrestling base and ever developing stand-up skills to match his grappling.
Davis stumbled in his marquee matchup against Rashad Evans at UFC on Fox 2 last year but now looks to redeem himself against another former champion when he faces Machida in August.
The other piece of the puzzle that all but falls into place with this Machida vs. Davis matchup is the next fight taking place with the UFC light heavyweight title on the line.
For the last few weeks, all signs have pointed to a showdown between Jones and Swedish born fighter Alexander Gustafsson, with both fighters taking to Twitter to rally for the bout to take place.
With Machida now locked up for a fight of his own at UFC 163, it’s all but assured now that Jones vs. Gustafsson will be the next light heavyweight title fight to take place sometime later this year.
Damon Martin is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report
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