Lyoto Machida vs Fabian Edwards booked for Bellator 281

We’ve got an exciting middleweight match up coming to us next month at Bellator 281, as former UFC light-heavyweight champion Lyoto Machida faces no. 4 ranked Bellator middleweight contender Fabian Edwards in his return to 185 lbs.

This event is to go down on May 13, 2022, at the SSE Arena in London, England.

Machida has switched back-and-forth from 185 lbs-to-205 lbs since his middleweight debut back in 2013.

Following his departure from the UFC, Machida defeated former Bellator middleweight champion Rafael Carvalho (SD) and Chael Sonnen (TKO), making it four-straight following a three-fight skid.

However, he then lost his last three bouts, one of which was contested at 185 lbs, and two up at 205 lbs against Phil Davis and Ryan Bader, both former Bellator light-heavyweight champions, one of which became a champ-champ.

Then his defeat at 185 lbs in that time came in his rematch to Bellator middleweight champion Gegard Mousasi, who he battled to a very close split decision with, and someone who he’d previously beat.

Fabian Edwards on the other hand comes in on a two-fight skid, having gone from 9-0 to 9-2, losing to Costello Van Steenis (SD) and No. 2 ranked Austin Vanderford (UD).

Machida, though he’s nearly 44 years old, still has all those skills he always did, and since he started losing, he’s been able to still beat some talented up-and-comers (Ryan Bader, Mark Munoz, Gegard Mousasi, CB Dollaway, Eryk Anders).

But, on that same note, he’s also lost to some (Luke Rockhold, Derek Brunson, Yoel Romero).

Of course, Edwards isn’t at the level of any of those names Machida’s lost to, but being no. 3 ranked UFC welterweight contender Leon Edwards’ brother, we know he has an elite training environment and good game planning going into his fights.

Not to mention, he was undefeated in BAMMA, as was Leon, who captured their belt prior to joining the UFC, and Fabian went undefeated in Bellator through his first five fights.

Who do you see coming out on top in this middleweight encounter?

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Brady Ordway

I became a fan of combat sports when I was 12 years old. I was scrolling through the channels and landed upon Versus, where WEC was televised. Urijah Faber fought Jens Pulver for the second time that night. That's the first fight I ever saw, and I was immediately hooked. So eventually, I began covering the sport in the fourth quarter of 2018, and have since started writing about animals as well. If you'd like to see those pieces, be sure to check out learnaboutnature.com!

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