Lyoto Machida: The Next...Fabricio Werdum?

I have a feeling Lyoto Machida is getting lost in the Light Heavyweight Division. Yes, he's undefeated, coming off his biggest win to date stopping formerly undefeated and fellow Brazilian Thiago Silvain the first round of their fight at UFC 94. However, I fail to see why Lyoto Machida will becomes this division's Fabricio Werdum.

Fabricio Werdum had some impressive wins. But he came up at the wrong time. While he solidified as a contender, Randy Couture came back to the UFC and stole the spotlight. Not to mention the UFC decided to use Interim Champion Antonio Nogueira and number one contender, Frank Mir, for its reality show, shelving them from competition for over six months. This put Werdum in limbo even though he was the clear number one contender after Mir.

Werdum decided to accept a fight against a newcomer in Junior Dos Santos. UFC and Werdum probably figured to keep Werdum true to competition form and have him pick up an easy win while he waited for the Heavyweight Tournament between Mir, Nogueira, Brock Lesnar, and Couture to unfold. Then, bam. Dos Santos knocks out Werdum, sends him further down the already thin UFC Heavyweight division ranks and outside of the Mir vs Lesnar rematch, really scrambles up the ranking system.

So how can I relate Machida to Werdum? Simple. Machida is undefeated and the clear number one contender to the title, beating the likes of former champion Tito Ortizon his UFC swan song and undefeated Thiago Silva among others. Werdum had beaten top ranked Gabriel Gonzaga and highly touted Bradon Vera, comparable to Machidas achievements.

Werdum has two notable losses, by decision, to Nogueira himself and former champ Andrei Arvloski. Werdum was in a very thin Heavyweight division, Machida is in the deepest division in the UFC and possibly all of MMA. Therefore, Machida has much more to lose, and he doesn't even have to lose right away.

All it takes is a Quinton "Rampage" Jackson win over Keith Jardineand Lyoto will have to sit another few months. Then, Jackson will get the shot at champion Rashad Evans. Lyoto will probably fight on that undercard or one right around it. To who? A newcomer? Someone like Dos Santos? Then he can hear criticisms of not taking a top flight contender like Werdum did? All while Wanderlei Silva is taking on Rich Franklin, and Chuck Liddell fights Mauricio "Shogun" Rua.

Then, not to mention that top names like former champion Forrest Griffin, Stephen Bonnar, Bradon Vera and James Irvin all wait in the wings for their next shot at the top 10 or even top five.

So, does anyone see Lyoto taking on a newcomer, or a top contender. Or will he get lucky and see Jardine beat Jackson, granting him access to that oh so elusive title shot?