As reported by mmaweekly.com and mmajunkie.com, Mauricio "Shogun" Rua has verbally agreed to face newly-crowned light heavyweight champion Lyoto "The Dragon" Machida.

Shogun is coming off a very impressive win over Chuck "The Iceman" Liddell. The win was impressive in the fact that the agile Shogun took Liddell down twice, which very few people have been able to do, and finally finished him off with strikes.

The undefeated Machida (15-0-0) just captured the title by knocking Rashad Evans into la la land. Evans never looked like he stood a chance.

The first title challenger was all but set to be Quinton "Rampage" Jackson but Jackson stated that he wanted to finish the feud with Evans and hone his skills to get back to the old Rampage.

The Machida versus Shogun bout is rumored to be in the fall and will probably take place around UFC 103-04.