The unbeatable Lyoto Machida?

 

It has been less than 24 hours and it already feels like Lyoto Machida is being coronated high king of MMA.

Joe Rogan declared the arrival of the Machida Era last night and Dana White concurred (I used it as my lead to my recap). 5thRound.com continues that storyline and it appears that we are all living in a Machida world. Cagepotato compares Machida's performance to the Terminator. MMAforReal looks at how marketable this new champion will be and FiveOuncesofPain is comparing Machida to Fedor. All the while new exaltations are written and posted.

Does Machida deserve such fan fare?

Absolutely.

Is he unbeatable?

Well that is a far more difficult question to answer.

Right now Machida may be posed to make a deep run as the UFC light heavyweight champion. Something that the last three champions haven't been able to accomplish. On the other hand, the survival rate of everyone drops to zero.

Let's examine the current top fifteen light heavyweights according to the Consensus Rankings. 

1. Rashad Evans
   
2. Quinton Jackson
   
3. Lyoto Machida
   
4. Forrest Griffin
   
5. Mauricio Rua
   
6. Keith Jardine
   
7. Wanderlei Silva
   
8. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira
   
9. Renato Sorbal
10. Chuck Liddell
    
11. Thiago Silva
    
12. Dan Henderson
    
13. Luiz Cane
    
14. Rich Franklin
    
15. Tito Ortiz

Machida has four wins in the top fifteen against the #1, 11, 14 and 15 ranked fighters. There are still plenty of match ups which haven't occured that can generate interest. But looking up and down this list I can't see anyone who could contend with the new light heavyweight champion.

Perhaps 'The Dragon' has come to roost and until St. George appears we will be stuck with him for a long time.