Lyoto Machida has a dance partner for what could be his final appearance in the Bellator cage.
Officials confirmed to MMA Fighting that Machida (26-11) will fight Fabian Edwards (9-2) at Bellator London, which takes place May 13 at OVO Arena Wembley in London. Edwards had been scheduled to fight Marian Dimitrov at Bellator 275,, but Edwards will be fighting in England. It is not clear if Dimitrov will face a different opponent on the February 25 card.
The matchup change was first reported by The Mirror.
Machida stated on MMA Fighting’s Trocacao Franka podcast in February that he still has one fight on his Bellator contract, and that he intends to try free agency.
“[Bellator] came to us and said, ‘Let’s renew [the contract] one more time if Lyoto wants to,’ and whatever, and we said no, let’s fight this one first and then we’ll see,” Machida said. “Every fight is a different fight for me. It was that way for me in the past .”
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A former UFC light heavyweight champion, Machida has competed at both 205 pounds and 185 pounds for Bellator. The 43-year-old defeated former middleweight champion Rafael Carvalho in his debut and then picked up a second-round TKO of Chael Sonnen, but has since lost three straight fights. In his last fight at Bellator 256 in April, “The Dragon” was defeated by Ryan Bader.
Edwards is also in dire need of victory after losing his last two fights. Edwards lost his last two Bellator bouts to Austin Vanderford, and Costello van Steenis.
Bellator London headlines a welterweight champion bout in which the undefeated Yaroslav Amorov defends his title against Michael Page.
Mike Heck helped to create this report.
