Bellator MMA middleweight champion, Gegard Mousasi, has been paired off with the promotion’s welterweight titleholder, Rory MacDonald, for the upcoming mixed martial arts (MMA) event in September, which also launches the newly-signed DAZN agreement.
But amid all the talk of their champion vs. champion super fight, former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) light heavyweight champion, Lyoto Machida, signed with Bellator MMA and could be in the running for “The Dreamcatcher’s” title.
Assuming he passes a battery of Mousasi-mandated drug tests.
“I think we are in different stages now,” Mousasi told MMA Fighting. “He’s older and they were drug testing in the UFC. Look at his physique, I think that says enough. If I fight him, he needs a lot of drug testing. If he wins his fight and he’s a contender, we are 100-percent going to do that.”
Machida (24-8) topped Mousasi (44-6-2) at UFC Fight Night 36 by way of five-round unanimous decision.
Unfortunately for “The Dragon,” some of his accomplishments came under scrutiny when he ran afoul of United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), which sent Machida to the sidelines for roughly two years (more on that here).
Will history repeat itself under the Bellator MMA banner?