Lyoto Machida vs. Gegard Mousasi booked for Feb. 8

Fresh off his successful middleweight debut, Lyoto Machida has his next assignment.

Machida (20-4 MMA, 12-4 UFC), a former UFC light heavyweight champion, will fight former Strikeforce 205-pound champ Gegard Mousasi (34-3-2 MMA, 1-0 UFC) in the main event of a show expected to take place Feb. 8 in Brazil.

Globo.com first reported the fight booking for the card that is planned for Arena Jaragua in Jaragua do Sul, Santa Catarina, Brazil, and UFC officials later made a formal announcement.

The "Fight Night" card will be broadcast on FOX Sports 2. Sources close to the promotion on Friday told MMAjunkie.com it will not be the first "Fight Night" card of the 2014 UFC calendar.

Machida just this past week stopped Mark Munoz in the first round at UFC Fight Night 30 in Manchester, England. A head kick did the job for a "Knockout of the Night" victory for "The Dragon" against his friend and sometimes training partner. Machida took the fight on a little more than a month's notice, filling in for original headliner Michael Bisping when a detached retina and subsequent eye surgery forced "The Count" out of the fight in front of his home fans. Machida had been expected to face Tim Kennedy next week at "UFC Fight Night 31: Fight for the Troops 3," but was pulled to save the card in England.

That win got Machida back in the win column after a controversial unanimous decision loss to Phil Davis at UFC 163 in August in Brazil. That was his first fight in his home country since April 2006, so he'll be looking for his first UFC win in Brazil when he meets Mousasi.

Mousasi won his UFC debut in April after coming over from Strikeforce. He beat last-minute replacement Ilir Latifi in Sweden after Alexander Gustafsson was ruled out with a cut he suffered the week before the fight. Prior to that win, Mousasi, a former DREAM champ, had a six-fight unbeaten streak after losing his Strikeforce light heavyweight title to Muhammed Lawal in April 2010.

Source: MMA Junkie

I'm picking Gegard.

Either way, it ought to be a good one

Mousasi via being a good striker. Machida is good, but extremely limited in his abilities. I expect a 2nd round TKO and Mousasi vs Anderson early next year.

Machida limited? Bold statement.

SandmanFC wrote:Machida limited? Bold statement.

Considering his hand combinations lack ending on the right punch, his posture is terrible and can't react to when a guy gets inside, and he has a jab that leaves a ton to be desired, yes, he's limited. Fortunately for him, most mma fighters suck.

Mousasi is going to maul this cat.

Place bets on who pulls out first.

Uncle Red wrote:Place bets on who pulls out first.

Unfortunately Machida already has two little replicas running around like him  

SRC wrote:

SandmanFC wrote:Machida limited? Bold statement.

Considering his hand combinations lack ending on the right punch, his posture is terrible and can't react to when a guy gets inside, and he has a jab that leaves a ton to be desired, yes, he's limited. Fortunately for him, most mma fighters suck.

First off, that was funny. Secondly, when did you become a Karate expert to judge Lyoto's striking technique???

Fedor had a really bad boxing stance...
Fedors' BBJ technique was terrible...
Fedor's shoot to a single or double-leg TD was terrible to non-existent...
Sakuraba's BJJ posture was terrible - He wad always moving around way to much endlessly trying to grab anything he could instead assuming one good BJJ position...

I hope you get this.

Dagwood wrote:

SRC wrote:

SandmanFC wrote:Machida limited? Bold statement.

Considering his hand combinations lack ending on the right punch, his posture is terrible and can't react to when a guy gets inside, and he has a jab that leaves a ton to be desired, yes, he's limited. Fortunately for him, most mma fighters suck.

First off, that was funny. Secondly, when did you become a Karate expert to judge Lyoto's striking technique???

Fedor had a really bad boxing stance...
Fedors' BBJ technique was terrible...
Fedor's shoot to a single or double-leg TD was terrible to non-existent...
Sakuraba's BJJ posture was terrible - He wad always moving around way to much endlessly trying to grab anything he could instead assuming one good BJJ position...

I hope you get this.

Who am I to judge someones striking, so I'm going to try and create a counter argument about fighters on completely different skill sets. Makes sense  

I may or may not have some experience. Who knows.

Hope Mousasi destroys that runner...

How is Machida considered a runner nowadays?

He comes forward more than ever, now. Are you not allowed to fight defensively?

wekka wrote:How is Machida considered a runner nowadays?

He comes forward more than ever, now. Are you not allowed to fight defensively?

Excuse me for that, i still kinda hate him for the Hendo fight . But i guess more because im bitter that he had such a mean streak of victories and never fought for the title again

Dorch wrote:

wekka wrote:How is Machida considered a runner nowadays?

He comes forward more than ever, now. Are you not allowed to fight defensively?

Excuse me for that, i still kinda hate him for the Hendo fight . But i guess more because im bitter that he had such a mean streak of victories and never fought for the title again

I'm still salty about that fight too but slugging it out with Hendo is a BAD idea.

So I can't really blame him.

I got to go with Machida on this one especially after his performance against Munoz

I fucking hate piss breathe hope mousasi smokes his ass if gegard is bak to his aggressive muaythai its over.

Shogun showed great offense overwhelms backpedaling.

I Kno lyoto has shown a little more aggression but he wont against a great striker Munoz was never a threat on the feet.

sucks for mousasi.

Should be a good fight.