Chris Thomas, the co-host of Fight Club on SiriusXM (and a Baltimore guy), was on Scott Ferrall’s Sirius show Monday night and raised an interesting point about Brock Lesnar.
He said, essentially, that light heavyweight champ Lyoto Machida could move up to heavyweight right now and beat Brock Lesnar. Given that Machida has developed into quite an enigma himself, this fight sounds like it could be fascinating. Machida has expressed an interest in fighting Lesnar in the past but I think this would be a very tough fight for him.
Still, I like his chances better than 95 percent of the UFC’s heavyweight division. It could be awhile before we see Machida lose and the UFC has nothing to gain by making this fight while both are champs.
We’ve never seen Brock’s chin tested and Machida has excellent jiu-jitsu but Brock’s size and strength would be two difficult problems for Machida to solve. Machida has a unique style though and Im not so sure Lesnar would be able to impose his gameplan at will.
Make no mistake, Lesnar has flaws. His strengths are capable of masking those against most of the UFCs heavyweights and Lesnar hasnt reached his peak yet. But an "elusive" and smart fighter, like Machida, could make things interesting for Lesnar. Certainly more interesting than with Heath Herring or Frank Mir.
Photo courtesy of the UFC