by Yifei Yun

Created on: October 26, 2009   Last Updated: October 27, 2009

The light heavyweight division in the UFC is arguably the most popular division in the organization. With so many big name fighters, both past and present, who could possibly be the best fighter in this highly contested division?

The answer is Lyoto Machida. His record of 16 - 0 speaks for himself. On top of that, he is the current light heavyweight champion of the UFC, having beaten some of the top fighters in order to get there. I know that in his last fight, he did not deserve the unanimous decision victory over Shogun Rua. However, the judges made their decision and Lyoto is still the light heavyweight champion. I'm not here to argue the outcome of the fight with Shogun. I'm sure there are plenty of others who want to voice their opinion on it.

Lyoto Machida (or The Dragon, as he is otherwise known) is of Brazilian and Japanese descent. He is a practitioner of what is now known as Machida Karate, which is one of the reasons why he is so hard to defeat. There are not many mixed martial artists who use a very traditional karate stance and so most fighters struggle to predict how Machida will attack. On top of this, he is a very deadly counter striker, which means he can very easily take advantage of any mistakes made by his opponent. His training partner is pound-for-pound one of the world's best fighters, Anderson Silva. As well as his top notch striking, he is also a black belt in Brazilian jiujitsu and has very efficient takedown defense. While he will aim to stay on his feet and strike most of the time, Machida's skill on the ground means that he can just as easily submit his opponent. With all these skills combined with his unpredictability, it's no wonder that other fighters struggle to deal with him.

However, there is a silver lining on top of this Machida cloud: he can (and will) be beaten. As Shogun showed, with the right game plan and effective execution, Machida can be hurt and made to look very average. Knocking out Machida may be harder due to him being a counter striker, which means that he will aim to avoid most encounters. I'm looking forward to see the rematch with Shogun, which hopefully has both fighters going full out for a knock out. It is also interesting to see how Rashad Evans and Rampage Jackson both do in their next fights. I'm hoping Rampage comes back soon after his filming schedule for the A Team.

One bad fight doesn't mean Machida is any less dangerous than before. Everyone has a bad day at the office. He's still the best though.

Learn more about this author, Yifei Yun.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.