Hyden's Take
HYDEN BLOG: My Most Anticipated Fight of the Summer, and Lyoto Machida vs. Phil Davis
Jun 5, 2013 - 9:55:56 AM HYDEN BLOG: My Most Anticipated Fight of the Summer, and Lyoto Machida vs. Phil Davis

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By: Frank Hyden, MMATorch contributor

The other day we were asked a roundtable question about our most antipicated event of the summer. I answered with UFC 162 because of Anderson Silva defending his UFC Middleweight Title against Chris Weidman. My reasoning is very simple, it's an Anderson Silva fight. However, I wanted to take this opportunity to talk about my second choice, UFC 163.

This is the card on which Jose Aldo will defend his UFC Featherweight Title against Anthony Pettis. I want to make it very clear, this is one of my most anticipated fights in quite some time. In another time, this would be my most anticipated fight. It's much the same way that 2011 saw the release of two of my favorite games in years, Skyrim and Saints Row: The Third. Any other year there would be no contest as to my most anticipated game, but that year it was hard to choose.

I can't go against an Anderson Silva fight because the stakes are so high. No matter what happens, history will be made. Either Silva continues his destructive path or we get the monster upset. Every successive fight that Silva wins only adds to the stakes as they get higher and higher.

Even though I don't give Weidman a good chance to win, a subject that was the topic of an epic debate on the MMATorch forums, this still is an enormous fight. There's no question that Aldo vs. Pettis is a huge fight, and I believe they will deliver on the hype, but I just can't go against a Silva fight at this point.

I do believe that the stakes are extremely high for Aldo in this fight, though. The first is obviously that his featherweight title is on the line against probably the toughest challenge he's ever faced. The second is that Aldo has a chance to really make his mark with a spectacular win. Aldo is facing a guy in Pettis who would have a good chance at being a two-division champion if the UFC were to allow him to try. If Aldo is able to beat Pettis that says a lot.

At the same time the stakes are very high for Pettis as well. He's going for a championship, but he's also going for respect. Jose Aldo is usually ranked pretty high on many people's lists of best fighters. A win over him is huge.

To sum up, Aldo vs. Pettis is second only to Silva vs. Weidman in my eyes because what Silva is doing is unprecedented. I think it's likely that Aldo vs. Pettis is the better fight, though.

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The UFC has also announced that Lyoto Machida and Phil Davis are slated to fight at UFC 163. This is a big step up for Davis, as Machida is one of the guys talked about when it comes to getting the next title shot against Jon Jones. If Davis is able to secure the win against Machida that puts him in fantastic position to lobby for the title shot himself. I think he would still need another win myself, but I'd be ok with him facing the champion, mainly because the division isn't exactly crawling with contenders. Gegard Mousasi and Alexander Gustafsson would be the two other guys that I would say would be close to a title shot.

As for Machida, this is a step back, but I still think a win here gives him the inside track to a title shot. The main reason being that, again, the division isn't overrun with contenders. I think this fight goes a way towards giving us a solid contender, or at least a clear contender.

In the fight itself, I think Machida wins by decision. I think he'll do that Machida thing and evade, evade, evade. I haven't seen enough from Davis to make me think that he'll be able to stop Machida from implementing his gameplan like he usually does. I think Machida has the skills to finish Davis if he wanted to, but knowing Machida he probably won't try to do that.

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The UFC has been approached about possibly running an event at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. That would have the potential to be an enormous crowd. I think this is an opportunity that the UFC should jump at. The large crowd would be great by itself, but also it would be open-air, which would only add to the atmosphere. Anything the UFC can do to try to make certain events special is something that they should definitely go for. There would always be the risk of rain, but I think the risk would be worth it.


Comments and suggestions can be emailed to me at hydenfrank@gmail.com and you can follow me on Twitter at @hydenfrank