The best and worst from UFC Fight Night 125

#1 Worst – Home cooking saves Machida

Eryk Anders seemed to have done enough to beat Lyoto Machida but came out on the wrong end of the decision

Going into last night’s fight with Eryk Anders, former Light-Heavyweight champ Lyoto Machida was looking for his first win since 2014, as he’d been on a skid of three fights to sandwich a suspension for PEDs. And indeed, he picked up that win as the judges awarded him a split decision victory. But did he really win that fight? I don’t think he did. I’m not saying the judges were favouring Brazilian fighters, but the massively pro-Machida crowd may have helped to sway them.

Sure, Machida wasn’t brutally knocked out as he was against Derek Brunson in October, but after an encouraging first round, it appeared that Anders was the one pushing the action, landing the better strikes and doing far more damage, cutting Lyoto badly with a knee in the third round. Machida was never out of the fight as Anders clearly had holes in his game, but I felt the Brazilian won the 1st and 5th rounds at best and should’ve lost the decision.

Despite calling out Michael Bisping post-fight, Machida is likely to be matched with another nasty up-and-comer next – someone like Paolo Costa – and that just doesn’t bode well for ‘The Dragon’. Realistically, as he’s pushing 40, his loss to Brunson should’ve signalled his retirement. But this win – one he shouldn’t have gotten, really – might put him in line to receive another knockout which is worrying. It was a double-edged bad point of the show.