Fight Saturday

This coming Saturday there is going to be a free-TV UFC fight that I'm dying to see. It isn't for a title, but is chock full of interesting angles.

Lyoto Machida used to be the UFC Light Heavyweight champion. Unlike most fighters, he's always fought at the weight he actually is.

The cut off for that division is 206 pounds. His normal weight is in the 200-205 pound range, so he never has to cut weight. This puts him at a big size disadvantage when competing against others in that division. The current champ, Jon Jones walks around weighing 230 pounds. When he has a fight scheduled he loses weight normally, and then cuts perhaps the last ten pounds by sweating it out. In the 24 hours between the weigh-in and the actual bout, he gains this all back. He steps in to the ring at about 215.

Size isn't everything, but between two equally talented and trained fighters it can be the tipping factor.

Machida is probably the only guy in any division to actually fight at his weight.

He's decided to change this, and has accepted a fight in the 186 pound Middleweight division.

For this fight, he'll be facing Mark Munoz. Munoz is the Middleweight division's number 5 ranked fighter. My coincidence, Lyoto Machida is the number 5 ranked Light Heavyweight.

Their martial arts backgrounds couldn't be more different. Munoz was a top-level wrestler, and Machida is a Karate guy. Both have cross-trained extensively, but it could be a classic grappler versus striker match-up.

Another twist is that Munoz, although a wrestler, has a weak submission game. To try and remedy this, he's recently been training at the headquarters Gracie Academy in Los Angeles. Another guy training there to improve his Jiu-Jitsu skills is Lyoto Machida.

The two guys have been training together for the last while under Ryron and Rener Gracie, the eldest grandsons of the founder of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu. I assume they stopped being training partners once they found out about the fight.

Ryron Gracie will be in Mark Munoz's corner, while Rener Gracie will corner Lyoto Machida.

I can't wait, and it's free.