Machida Will Fight For The Title If He Wins on Saturday

Everyone is talking about the B.J. Penn / Georges St. Pierre fight that is headlining the UFC 94 card on Saturday. This is to be expected, considering the fact that Penn and St. Pierre are two of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world, and both fighters are in the primes of their careers.

However, there is another very big match-up taking place on that same card - Lyoto Machida vs Thiago Silva.

Both fighters have perfect 13-0 records. Machida has defeated the likes of Tito Ortiz, B.J. Penn and Rich Franklin, while Silva has victories over James Irvin, Houston Alexander and Antonio Mendes.

Dana White has gone on the record as saying that if Machida wins, then he will have earned himself a shot at Rashad Evans' light heavyweight title. If Silva wins, he says, then Silva will be one more fight away from a shot at the title.

For Machida, there is going to be quite a bit more at stake than simply preserving his perfect record.

Lyoto has been slowly moving up the ranks of the light heavyweight division, despite the fact that nobody really seems to want to fight him. Multiple fighters in the division have turned down opportunities to fight Machida, citing his "boring" style as the primary reason. Other fighters with more "exciting" styles would have had a shot at the title by now - for Machida, he has had to patiently wait for his opportunity.

If Machida loses this fight, then he will have a very long and uphill battle to regain a spot in the title picture.

I don't just see him squandering this incredible opportunity.