If you want to get technical about it, Lyoto Machida actually threw two kicks Saturday during his main event bout against CB Dollaway.
Really, though, all he needed was the one.
That crushing left to the body—that’s all it took for Machida to dispatch the overmatched Dollaway just one minute and two seconds into the first round at UFC Fight Night 58 and prove he’s still among the best fighters in whichever weight class he chooses to compete.
“CB is a very tough fighter,” the soft-spoken karate master told UFC play-by-play announcer Jon Anik in the cage after it was over. “But the kick landed and I saw that he felt it and I went in for the finish.”
After a bounce-back 2014 for Machida, you could categorize that assessment as one of the year’s biggest understatements.
As for how far back up the ladder the former light heavyweight champion can climb now that he’s making his home at middleweight? That’s going to take a little more time to figure out.
Despite a 3-1 record this year, Machida continues to lug significant baggage with him each time he makes the walk to the Octagon. Heading into this bout, he was just 5-5 in his last 10 Octagon appearances. His 349-day run with 205-pound title back in 2009-10 failed to live up to sky-high expectations. After dropping to 185 pounds earlier this year, he also lost a championship thriller against Chris Weidman in July.
It’s likely too strong to call Machida damaged goods, but at 36 years old, the clock is ticking, and he still has considerable work to do if he means to claw his way back to the top. The middleweight division is flush with fresh title challengers at the moment. For him to once again lay claim to No. 1 contender status, he’d likely need Weidman to drop the strap or else keeping winning so impressively that it becomes impossible for UFC brass to ignore him.
Regarding the latter option, performances like this sure won’t hurt.
Machida was as much as a 6-1 favorite over Dollaway, but there was still some interest to see how the underdog fighter would respond to the step up in competition in his first UFC main event. Including a controversial split-decision loss to Tim Boetsch in Oct. 2013, Dollaway was on a roll (four wins and one loss) during the last two and a half years. A victory over Machida would’ve made his bones as an A-lister.
If the point of this matchup was to find out which of these fighters belonged in the top tier of the 185-pound division, though, The Dragon answered that question with an emphatic walk-off grand slam.
And he came out first-pitch swinging.
From the opening bell, Dollaway—who embraced his black-hat role fighting in Brazil, entering to Toby Keith’s “Made in America” and carrying the stars and stripes on his shoulder—looked to pressure Machida with a rapid-fire jab. Again and again he slapped the former champion’s lead right hand away as the two circled each other at the center of the cage.
Machida looked patient as ever, but during the fight’s first 20 seconds he feinted with a left body kick and Dollaway visibly flinched from it. Perhaps that was all the more experienced fighter needed to see. Machida threw one inside leg kick, which Dollaway immediately answered, first with a chopping low kick of his own and then one aimed at the head.
Less then 20 seconds later, though, Machida suddenly uncorked his thudding second kick, which found a home just under Dollaway’s right elbow. Dollaway froze, a stricken look on his face, and Machida followed with punches as he slumped to the canvas near the fence. It took just a few more seconds for the referee to call things off.
“I’ll wait for the boss, Dana White, to choose who’s next,” Machida told Anik a few minutes later. “My main objective is always the belt.”
Actually, he may not have to wait at all. White may have already decided.
In the immediate aftermath of the bout, fellow middleweight contender Luke Rockhold tweeted a challenge to the UFC president, and White appeared to give his blessing.
Exactly when that fight might happen isn’t yet known, though there was some instant speculation that matchmakers could scramble to get it on Feb.’s UFC 184 card. That event already features Weidman’s long-awaited title defense against Vitor Belfort and a presumed No. 1 contender bout between Jacare Souza and Yoel Romero.
It would amount to a quick turnaround, but given Machida’s brief night of work this weekend and Rockhold’s apparent good health after a one-sided win over Michael Bisping last month, perhaps not an impossible one.
Slating all those fights on the same card would make a 185-pound showcase out of the UFC’s third pay-per-view of 2015. It would give this division some momentum after Weidman spent the second half of 2014 on the shelf with a broken hand.
After a strange—and ultimately lopsided—pairing with Dollaway, it would also get Machida back where he belongs.
All he needed to get there was a single kick.
Fine, maybe two. But who’s counting?
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