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Two former UFC light heavyweight champs will clash in November when Lyoto Machida takes on Quinton “Rampage” Jackson.

“My next fight is confirmed and it’s (going) to be against Rampage,” read Lyoto Machida’s Twitter account confirming the matchup with him and Rampage.

Should be a very interesting fight to watch and highly entertaining. The fight sort of is a class of styles and should take place a lot on the feet. Both fighters like to strike and Rampage is a more aggressive puncher, while Machida a solid counter-hitter. That sort of makes me lean towards Machida in this bout. He’s hard to hit and counterpunches really well, so I could envision Rampage rushing forwards with attacks with his fists and getting countered for much of this 3 round affair. We’ll see, Rampage does hit hard and that can be a real equalizing force and can drasticallly change the course of a bout. It’s the old adage: “Everyone has a plan until they get hit in the face.”

The last time Machida was hit it came from the end of arms of Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, who knocked out his fellow Brazilian light-heavyweight and put the first blemish on his until then perfect record.

Rampage is coming off a tough loss himself at the hands of Rashad Evans. Rampage, a very proud and strong minded competitor, is looking to erase the memory of that performance and get back on the winning track. When you hear Rampage after losses he has a lot of reasons why he lost the fight, and he really believes he’s the best in the world at 205. Whether it’s poor training, ring rust, injuries, referees being biased, Rampage always feels that if he’s 100% focussed he’ll win a fight and any of his losses were just the result of factors which chipped away at him being at his best. This is the mentality of some fighters, and every fighter has to have the a sense of confidence and invincibility to try and rise to the championship level. It sort of reminds me of Mark Coleman, who back in the day said something along the lines of, if you don’t have an excuse for why you lost you’re done. You’re finished. You can’t just go out there and say the guy is better than me and he kicked me ass. Some fighters subscribe to that mentality. I’m curious to see how Rampage reacts to that loss and how he performs against Machida. He has come back from big losses in the past only to come back and achieve ever higher levels of greatness in the game.

COMMON OPPONENTS BETWEEN RAMPAGE AND MACHIDA:
RASHAD EVANS
Evans defeated Rampage via decision
Machida defeated via knockout

MAURICIO SHOGUN RUA
Shogun defeated Rampage by KO
Shogun lost to Machida via decision
Shogun KO’d Machida in rematch

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This gentleman, NukerMMA has some good points on how he envisions this 205 pound tilt going between Machida and Rampage:

Here’s an old interview with Rampage when some people were accusing him of ducking Machida:

Former UFC 205 pound champs Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and Lyoto Machida of Brazil have signed to fight at UFC 122, which is rumored to be taking taking place in Germany on November 20th.

Both are coming off tough losses, Machida his first of his career to Mauricio Shogun Rua, and Rampage was defeated in a grudge match against Rashad Evans. It’ll be interesting to see how Machida responds to his first loss in MMA, and a brutal KO. Both fighters are going to be highly motivated in this bout. Jackson wants to show the world he’s a better fighter that was handled for most of the fight against Rashad Evans. Jackson is a great fighter and a proud one, being outwrestled and defeated by Evans had to have hurt his pride in a major way, and he’s looking to rebound and show that he is able to climb back to the top of the light-heavyweight division.

Machida for the first time will have to show his warrior spirit on the road back to redemption. We’re going to find out what kind of championship heart he really has after his first crushing loss in the game.

Here are some factors to consider in this pivotal 205 pound matchup set for Germany this fall:

STRIKING

Both these fighters are terrific when it comes to stand up fighter, but pretty different in their approach. Machida is a very unique blend of Muay Thai and Machida Martial Arts Karate, basically a system designed by his family. He is very quick on his feet, elusive, and leaps in forward to counterpunch to perfection. He was truly a juggernaut in the division when it came to striking, and only Shogun was able to solve the riddle that was Machida.

Jackson is more of a boxer with loads of power, and a very aggressive style of striking. He comes at opponents early in the fight and looks like a predator as the fight begins. He covers up well to avoid damage and lands good counterpunches as he did when he knocked out Chuck Liddell and Wanderlei Silva inside the UFC Octagon.

Both of these fighters are very dangerous in the standup domain. I envision this fight being mostly on the feet, so it may just come down to who’s the better striker. Machida is still a very hard fighter to get a handle on, and he’s going to be hard for Rampage to hit. Machida’s counterpunching is very effective and Rampage’s aggressive style might just feed into the biggest strength of Machida–counterstriking. I give Machida the edge in this department.

UFC 117 – Anderson Silva and Lyoto Machida talk about Chael Sonnen

WRESTLING

Rampage has some great double-leg takedowns and a lot of power behind his wrestling attack. He is a freakishly strong 205er and has proven to be a very successful takedown artist in past bouts. Machida however will be a hard one to take down as he is very quick on his feet and gets of range very quickly after striking. While some fighters attack with strikes and then subsequently leave themselves open to double and single leg takedowns, Machida is extremely swift in stepping out of the way and retreating from his opponent to avoid being counter-attacked.

Machida also does a great job of exploding forward into the clinch and getting a quick trip takedown. He’s done this to perfection in past bouts. Against Tito Ortiz, Machida pulled this move off very well. And even in his second bout with Shogun, Machida looked great in being able to take down Shogun with a couple solid trip takedowns in the first round.

I think these fighters might be able to take one another down at various junctures of the bout, but for the most part it’ll be a wrestling stalemate and the fight will be primarily a standup affair.

GRAPPLING
I don’t envision too much of a wrestling battle, and in the same way I don’t anticipate an Abu Dhabi Submission Grappling style of match to break out during this fight. Ground work, if any in this contest, will take the form of punches and elbows from the fighter in the top position. The fighter who is competing off his back will work hard to get back to his feet. I can see both of these guys getting back to their feet if taken down, and once again keeping most of the bout on the feet.

RESULT
Looks like it’s going to be an entertaining fight for fans, who love seeing standup battles. Two dynamic strikers, two former champions, and two fighters who really need a win to stay relevant among the top contenders for the 205 pound belt. A loss isn’t detrimental to their career, but it can’t really help to drop 2 in a row, and take a back seat while up and comers such as Jon Jones work their way into the upper eschelon of the weight class.

This will mostly be a standup fight, and Machida, although he lost some of his mystique after competing against Shogun, is still a very dangerous and puzzling fighter to figure out on the feet. He’s going to come back with renewed vigor and show that he is a very mentally strong fighter, talented athlete, and deserved to win that UFC title in the first place. He will be given a hell of a fight by Rampage, who is looking to show everyone including himself, that he is the best 205er out there and can beat anyone the UFC throws in the cage with him. But I just feel Machida’s counterpunching and quickness will make the difference in the Brazilian defeating his American counterpart in Jackson via decision.

I respect him definitely as a fighter, he definitely has fight in him. He didn’t quit like I thought he was going to quit. I thought he was going to be looking for a way out but he didn’t. In the positions that I had, I was like, “I know he’s going to quit”, he didn’t quit…He’s a legend in the sport, and for me to say I don’t respect him and respect that, that would be a lie, because that I do. But at the same time on the personal side, why every single time he loses he has to make excuses? Just say, “You know what I lost” and that’s the end of it.

Thanks to MMA Bay for the link

The main reason I want Forrest is not only because he beat me, but because how he acted…like he really thought he won, I thought that was a smack in the face. How he got mad if anybody protested that he won that fight.
A true MMA fan, whether he’s my fan or not, can see…I was champion and I did enough to win that fight. If somebody beat me, yeah I want a rematch and stuff like that, just because they beat me and I’m not a sore loser, but I just don’t want people to run with something they don’t deserve and act all salty when people get mad.…There’s a certain honor and respect in fighting and Rashad don’t show honor and respect to fighting and Forrest didn’t show honor and respect. He didn’t have to say, “Yeah I lost to Rampage” but he didn’t ‘have to get mad when people tell that he lost. He could have just said, “You know what, that’s your opinion.”
–Rampage on fighting Forrest Griffin

In probably the biggest grudge match the UFC has seen, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and Rashad Evans finally duked it out and settled their differences in the cage in the main event of UFC 114, and Evans picked up a unanimous decision when it was all said and done.

While many expected Rampage to be the first to land a big strike, it was actually Evans who just over a dozen seconds into the bout slammed an overhand right to the jaw of Rampage went sent the former UFC light heavyweight champion reeling towards the cage. Jackson recovered but that in addition to a takedown won Evans the round, who showed a good mix of striking and takedowns in the first. In the second round Evans used a lot of clinch work and tried to wear down Rampage with some strong wrestling and pushing and pulling, much like Evans’ teammate Georges St. Pierre did in his second bout with BJ Penn. In the third round Rampage had a great chance to finish the bout as he was able to land some strikes on Evans and get him to the ground and continue to land shots on his grounded opponent. Evans stayed composed, found his way back up, and then planted Jackson on his back, only to land some shots on the ground towards the face of Jackson. Rampage worked his way back to his feet, but the superior cardio training of Evans would become evident as Evans fought to score another takedown on Rampage in the final minute of action. Rampage once again showed a lot of fortitude in getting back to his feet, but there was very little fuel left in his tank, and only a handful of seconds for him to work any standup attack he wanted to execute.

It was certainly an extremely intense fight from the get-go. Rampage in general was the more dangerous fighter in the striking, save the amazing shot Evans landed right off the bat. But Evans certainly was becoming increasingly threatening in the latter part of the third round with his ground and pound. Evans did have superior cardio training and was also wrestling around with some great training partners. Having a big beast like heavyweight interim champ Shane Carwin at his disposal was a tremendous help, in addition to the fine fighting legion that composes Greg Jackson’s academy in New Mexico, as well as Trevor Wittman’s gym.

All in all it’s been a very intriguing journey to watch these two rivals lead up to this moment. It was very interesting for sure to watch the two jaw at each other for months, I think I’m still a purist in the MMA game in terms of having respect for your opponent and showing it.

To make an armchair psychology observation, high degree of dislike between the two might indicate they both saw something in the other which they heavily dislike in themselves. Rampage has always been a very verbose fighter, and is quick to take shots at his opponents with words, albeit often coated with a strong sense of humor and entertainment. But when having some trash talk thrown back at him caused Jackson to get extremely annoyed, and he felt it was coming from a very arrogant place within Rashad. The normally mild-mannered and intelligent Rashad Evans turned into an argumentative and trashing talking machine, which was a strange site, but it’s not a shocking situation at the same time. Evans has always been a fighter who doesn’t want his opponent to psyche him out and walk around believing that he’s going to get the best of the fight. I recall at the weighins when Evans took on Sean Salmon, Evans made it a point to get right in Salmon’s face hyper-aggressively because the air of self confidence Salmon was exuding. And even going back to The Ultimate Fighter 2, where Evans was a contestant and eventual winner. I recall Evans trying to mellow out the ultra-cocky Melvin Guillard on the show, who was verbally hyping himself up to be the savior of the welterweight division. Evans let Guillard know that he didn’t have to go around talking the talk, but just needed to go out and perform in the cage. Evans also mentioned the Guillard sort of reminded him of himself when he was younger.

Basically the two light-heavyweights brought out the worst in each other outside the cage, but when it came to performing in the Octagon they brought out the best.

Evans is expected to get a title shot against Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, while Jackson has 5 more fights on his UFC contract.