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MANILA, Philippines – Ex-light heavyweight champion Lyoto Machida made a quick work on middleweight contender CB Dollaway in their 185-pound showdown at UFC Fight Night 58 on Sunday, December 21 (PH Time) at the Jose Correa Arena in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
The 36-year-old Machida only needed 62 seconds to finish the job as the Japanese-Brazilian dispatched Dollaway with a crisp body kick and a follow-up punching flurry in the first round.
Dollaway came out pawing his jab while circling to his left away from his counterpart’s power, but Machida closed the distance to smack his shin onto his opponent’s midsection and swarmed for the kill to call the attention of referee Jerin Valel to halt the contest.
“CB is a very tough fighter, but the kick landed and I saw he felt it. I went in for the finish,” Machida said in his post-fight interview.
According to FightMetric statistics, Machida nailed 12 significant strikes, while Dollaway was not able to land any shot.
With the impressive outing against Dollaway, Machida (22-5) places himself back on the winning track after bowing down to middleweight champion Chris Weidman via unanimous decision in a title tilt at UFC 175 this past July.
In addition, he scored the ninth knockout of his mixed martial arts career and 11th finish overall.
Immediately after his remarkable victory, former Strikeforce middleweight titleholder Luke Rockhold went on social media to tell UFC president Dana White that he is interested to face Machida.
“[Machida] looked good. I’m ready when you are Dana White,” Rockhold wrote on Twitter.
Although vying for the belt remains as his definitive goal inside the Octagon, Machida stressed that he would wait on the promotion for his next assignment.
“I’ll wait for the boss, Dana White. My objective is always the belt,” Machida quipped.
On the other hand, Dollaway snaps his two-fight winning streak with the disappointing defeat and downgrades his prizefighting record to 15-6.
In the co-headliner of UFC Fight Night 58, one-time bantamweight kingpin Renan Barao rebounded from his first setback in more than nine years as he submitted Mitch Gagnon with a third-round arm-triangle choke. – Rappler.com
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