UFC 224: The best and worst

#3 Best: Lyoto’s not done yet

Lyoto Machida showed he's still got something left in the tank with his KO of Vitor Belfort

After he returned from a period of over two years on the shelf to take a really bad loss at the hands of Derek Brunson last year, I called for Lyoto Machida to retire and I wasn’t the only one.

But, early 2018 saw somewhat of a resurgence for ‘The Dragon’, as he defeated up-and-comer Eryk Anders in February after a close fight.

Booked against fellow veteran Vitor Belfort on Saturday’s show, the feeling from a lot of fans was that Machida probably had slightly more left in the tank.

That proved to be true, as he turned Belfort’s lights out in the second round with one of his best knockouts to date, a snapping front kick reminiscent of Anderson Silva’s 2011 knockout of Belfort.

Does this mean that Machida is a title contender again? Of course not. He’s still at the tail end of his career.

But, he’s definitely shown in his last two fights that he doesn’t necessarily need to call time on his career just yet.

Hopefully, the UFC can set up the long-awaited fight with Michael Bisping next, as it’d give Lyoto a chance to fight another veteran, and perhaps pull out another classic finish like he did on Saturday.