12 year MMA veteran Lyoto Machida isn't done with MMA yet. Question marks have arisen over 'The Dragon's' future after suffering two devastating back-to-back stoppage losses to Luke Rockhold and Yoel Romero. Rockhold, who will challenge Chris Weidman for the middleweight title in December, battered Machida before locking up a submission in the second round at UFC on FOX 15, and Romero knocked the Brazilian out cold with a series of devastating elbows on the ground at UFC Fight Night 70.
Despite the setbacks, Machida still feels he has what it takes to make another run at the middleweight title. Before that, though, he'd like to take some time off to heal his body. The former light-heavyweight champion spoke with Inside MMA correspondent Ron Kruck last week.
"To be honest, I think I wanna take some while to recover my body, because I had three fights in 7 months," Machida said. "So I think at the moment I have to take some rest and to think." When asked on whether he was considering another run at the title, Machida said "yes, I think I have many chance, a big chance in this class because I feel like I'm fast, I feel like, strong for the division. I don't want to move up to light-heavyweight again."
Although Machida is 1-3 in his last four, the 37-year-old had a competitive five-round fight with champion Chris Weidman last year and is still ranked as a top five middleweight. After the karate champion takes the necessary time off to repair his body, perhaps Machida should face the winner of Michael Bisping vs. Robert Whittaker.