There is no secret that at this time in the Middleweight division everybody has
precarious position. The previous king of the division Anderson "The Spider" Silva has aged, the new champion Chris "All-American" Weidman, in spite of his record 12 wins 0 losses, hasn't proved that he is new king. Everybody from the Top 10 can be the new champion, and The Chris's advantages are not seen as big advantages to be the victorious in all 10 fights. So if we don't have king, what's class of fighters we see? Everybody is contender, exclude one man, who formed the specific class.
The interesting battle will be between Lyoto "The Dragon" Machida and Luke Rockhold on the 18th of April. Lyoto takes the interesting position: when he was the Light Heavyweight champion, I could name him the new king of that division, but now when he is 36 years old, I can't see him at the throne for long years. This is paradox: Lyoto is the very dangerous man who can beat up anybody in the division, so he can screw up careers, but he can't be the Champion. He is the gatekeeper of the Top 5. This is new class of fighters, and we can't find out more strongly marked examples in the past. For instance, Junior "Cigano" Dos Santos or Chad "Money" Mendes are pretty young for this role.
Lyoto is the real test for Top Middleweights to be in the Top and, what is more important, to be the contender. He has the unique style which is the very hard to imitate, he is the natural fighter and he is always the Top 5 fighter who is interested to watch.
It's very hard to predict who will be the winner of Machida vs. Rockhold battle, but I suppose that it will be the exciting fight, and, maybe, Luke will be the first man who proves that he deserves to be in the Top 5.
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