The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) will visit the Phones 4u Arena in Manchester, England, on Saturday, October 26th, for their UFC Fight Night 30 event. The headline bout will see Lyoto “The Dragon” Machida, who is dropping from light heavyweight to middleweight, take on Mark “The Filipino Wrecking Machine” Munoz. This is an important fight for both guys as a win for Munoz would put him in the title picture at 185 lbs, and a victory for Machida would prove that the drop in weight-class was a good idea.

Lets take a look at three reasons why you need to watch Machida vs. Munoz:

They are friends

One of the amazing things about Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) is that it brings all sorts of different people together. As a fighter you may travel to different gyms to vary your training or fighters may visit your gym to spar or work on specific techniques. Lyoto Machida and Mark Munoz’s paths in MMA have led them to become training partners, but now they have to fight each other. Imagine being in the gym rolling and training BJJ with your buddy and then the next day you get a call to say that you will be fighting him, this is exactly what happened to Munoz and Machida. Don’t get me wrong, these guys don’t train together on a daily basis and they are not from the same team/camp, but they are friends and they do train on a somewhat regular basis from what I have heard. Fortunately these guys are true professionals and will definitely be going to war come Saturday night. I guess sometimes you just have to put friendships aside and take care of business.

This is Machida’s 1st fight at Middleweight

Lyoto Machida is widely regarded as one of the most elusive fighters in MMA and the former champ has always been a threat at light heavyweight. He now makes the move down to middleweight and has been given quite a tough assignment in Mark Munoz. One of the main things to keep an eye out for is Machida’s cardio, he has never really had a problem in the past, but now he is cutting a lot more weight and this can take a lot out of you. Losing size and weight can also mean you lose a bit of power, however you can also gain speed, this coupled with Lyoto’s world-class striking could make him even more dangerous. I personally think Machida will handle the weight cut well and have a lot of success at middleweight, but that is just my opinion. There are a lot of questions and they will all get answered on Saturday night.

Munoz wants a rematch with Weidman

It has been an 18 month roller-coaster for Mark Munoz, who I imagine will enter this fight with a lot of motivation. After Munoz’s loss to current UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman he was sidelined for a year due to a broken foot suffered during the fight. Unable to train, Mark slipped into a self confessed depression and began eating a lot more food. Once the injury had healed Munoz then made the decision to completely change his physical appearance and re-focus on the thing he does best, MMA. With a new ripped physique, Munoz made his return to the octagon at UFC 162 in July, defeating Tim Boetsch via unanimous decision. Picking up win over a big name fighter like Machida would definitely put Mark in the picture for a title shot. A fight against Weidman would give Munoz an opportunity to redeem his loss in their last fight and take home the gold, these are both things that Munoz wants and I don’t think he will let anything get in his way, not even “The Dragon”.

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Jay Cee – @JayCeeMMA

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