Lyoto Machida vs Thiago Silva at UFC 93

Thiago Silva and Lyoto Machida have officially been added to the UFC 93 card in January which will be headlined by Georges St. Pierre vs B.J. Penn 2. The Silva / Machida tilt was originally scheduled to take place at UFC 89, but Silva was forced to withdraw after suffering a back injury while training. This is probably a good thing for the UFC, as they can now load up the UFC 93 card even more and generate more PPV buys (UFC 89 is a free broadcast which will be shown on Spike TV).

Both fighters have identical 13-0 records. Silva has scored 10 of his victories via TKO, with only one of his victories coming via submission. Machida, on the other hand, has won eight of his fights via decision, and has taken some abuse from UFC fans because of his "boring" style. Boring or not, Machida has been extremely effective during his time in the UFC, and has been rapidly ascending the light heavyweight ladder.

Machida's most recent victory with a three round unanimous decision win over Tito Ortiz at UFC 84 - Ill Will. This was Tito's last fight in the UFC, and he always pulled off a victory at the very end of the fight when he landed a triangle. Machida was able to squirm out of the hold though, and held on to take the victory. Machida has also scored victories over Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou, Kazuhiro Nakamura, David Heath and Sam Hoger during his time in the UFC. Previous to that, he scored victories over B.J. Penn, Rich Franklin and Stephan Bonnar outside the UFC.

Silva has won all four of his fights in the UFC, with his most recent victory coming against Antonio Mendes at UFC 84 - Ill Will. Only one of Silva's last 9 fights have lasted past the first round - that was against Tomasz Drwal at UFC 78 - Validation, and Silva eventually knocked out Drwal in the second round. Silva has scored victories over Mendes, Houston Alexander, Tomasz Drwal and James Irvin during his time in the UFC.

This is a great match-up because their two styles are so different. Machida tends to stay on the defensive, looking for small openings to score points, while Silva looks for the big knockout blow. This is a very intriguing fight - if Machida defeats Silva, then he has to be considered for a shot at the light heavyweight title.