Back in October 2009, I attended UFC 104 in Los Angeles.
After years of covering mixed martial arts from my home in Texas, I was finally beginning to attend UFC events on a regular basis. I believe UFC 104 was my sixth event in a row, though I’d kindly ask that you not hold me to that. The mind starts forgetting things when you reach my age.
But I do remember the electricity in the air. Lyoto Machida was to defend the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship against Mauricio Rua.
Machida, with his unsolvable style, was the hot new thing in the UFC. Months earlier, Joe Rogan had famously welcomed us to The Machida Era after Machida dispatched Rashad Evans to win the championship.
And when I say “dispatched,” you understand that what I really mean is “knocked out Evans and stole his soul.”
The replay of that knockout is still and will forever be a part of Machida‘s highlight package: Evans slowly flopping backwards, knees buckled, eyes rolled back in his head. It was UFC violence at its best, and I remember thinking nobody would solve the Machida puzzle.
The man was damn near unbeatable.
Only, that’s not what happened. One true thing in MMA is this: When we think someone is unbeatable, we usually find out pretty quickly that they are, in fact, beatable.
There are exceptions to this rule, of course. Fedor Emelianenko’s rule of the heavyweight division during his time in Pride. Ronda Rousey’s dominance of the women’s bantamweight division. Jon Jones.
But generally speaking, nobody is unbeatable.
Machida barely edged Rua on that night, and then Rua took the belt in an immediate rematch. Since then, the man I once considered to be unbeatable and unsolvable has gone 6-6 in the UFC.
After a 3-4 run at light heavyweight, he moved down to middleweight and things looked good. He crushed Mark Munoz and then beat Gegard Mousasi to earn a title shot against Chris Weidman. He took Weidman all five rounds in dropping a decision loss. He rebounded and destroyed C.B. Dolloway in just over a minute.
But that’s where things get tricky.
Machida, who has competed at a high level throughout his career even when losing fights, was absolutely wrecked and dominated by Luke Rockhold. He was not competitive. It could be that age finally caught up with him. It’s likelier that he faced a fighter who is just that much better than him. Rockhold is a monster of a man with superb all-around skills.
That was in April, though. It has been just over two months, and Machida is already stepping back in the Octagon. He’ll do so on Saturday night when he faces Cuban comic book figure Yoel Romero, a former Olympic wrestler and contender for best body in the UFC.
Less than two months after the most one-sided loss of his career, Machida is going back in the cage with a man who has been known to maul his opponents.
Machida also had surgery on his hand after the Rockhold fight, as floating bone fragments were removed. He took three weeks off from training, which means he started training for Romero sometime in mid-May.
So Machida, coming out of a fight where he was dominated a little more than two months ago, underwent surgery and recovery before starting his camp. It was a short camp, perhaps five weeks. And he’s facing a monster of a man in Romero.
You’ll have to forgive me for the foreboding feeling I have in the pit of my stomach.
According to Machida, the short turnaround was by design.
“I like to be busy, especially after I lost against Luke Rockhold,” Machida recently said on an episode of The MMA Hour (h/t MMA Fighting). “The best way to recover is to get another fight.”
I get it. It’s the old adage about getting back on the horse. You fall down, so you get back up and try again as quickly as you can. A fast return and win over Romero would go a long way toward making folks forget about the Rockhold loss.
Machida even thinks he’d be back in the fabled “mix” for a title shot:
I think if I beat Romero, I’ll be in the mix. I’ll be in the mix and I can fight for the title anytime. But that’s not my goal now, to think on the title, because Yoel Romero is a tough opponent. I have to think on my next fight, keep my focus on Yoel Romero. But if I have a good victory over him, I’ll be in the mix.
Machida might be right. He’s still ranked fourth in the middleweight division, and he’s behind both Rockhold and Jacare Souza in terms of potential contenders for Weidman‘s title. A win over Romero wouldn’t earn him a title shot, but it would likely put him one more win away.
Still, I can’t help but be a little hesitant at the idea of “The Dragon” returning so quickly. At 37 years old, he is no longer a young man and his body can no longer adapt to the rigors of sport the way it once did.
Selfishly—because Machida has long been one of my favorite fighters to watch—I would have preferred to see him take more time off, heal his body, relax and prepare with a proper camp. Especially for an opponent like Romero.
Getting back on the horse is a great concept if things go Machida‘s way on Saturday.
But if they don’t and this quick turnaround ends up shortening his career even a little bit, I suspect we’ll look back on it as a good idea in concept but a bad idea in execution.
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