Lyoto Machida vs. Ryan Bader coming to UFC on Fox 4 in Los Angeles

By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

The UFC on Fox 4 card is starting to fill up, as the UFC passed along a report from a Brazilian website on Monday confirming that a light heavyweight bout between Ryan Bader and Lyoto Machida will come to the August 4 event in Los Angeles, Calif.

The fight joins the middleweight bout between Hector Lombard and Brian Stann, as well as a previously reported lightweight matchup between Terry Etim and Joe Lauzon.

Bader will look to continue his momentum after his second consecutive win in February. In that fight, he defeated former Light Heavyweight Champion Quinton "Rampage" Jackson, and Machida will now mark the third former Champion that he's faced in his last four fights.

Machida hopes to bounce back from a loss to Jon Jones in a title fight in December, his third loss in four fights. The former Champion went undefeated until losing his title to Mauricio "Shogun" Rua, who in turn lost the title to Jones after Jones earned his shot with a win over Bader.

Penick's Analysis: This is a very good light heavyweight fight, and another big opportunity for Bader. Machida has done well against wrestlers before, and though he's lost three of four they've come against names already talked about in this piece: Shogun, Rampage, and Jones. And the Rampage loss was a heavily debatable split decision. This UFC on Fox card is already looking really good on paper thus far with just this fight and Lombard-Stann.

[Lyoto Machida art by Grant Gould (c) MMATorch.com]

Original article mistakenly said Machida was the third straight former champion Bader has faced. He's the third in Bader's last four fights.

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