Source: MMA Weekly

A light heavyweight bout between Lyoto Machida and Ryan Bader has been booked for August 4 in Los Angeles, CA at UFC on FOX 4. The pairing is a little odd since Machida is coming off of a loss against Jon Jones back in December while Bader is coming off a dominating victory against Rampage Jackson. Bader is 2-2 in his last four fights, losing two in a row to Jon Jones and Tito Ortiz before rallying to beat Jason Brilz and Jackson. The TUF season 8 winner will have his hands full against the former champion Machida who is fighting for another crack at Jon Jones. Machida is only 1-3 in his last four fights losing to Shogun, Rampage, and Jones but knocking out Hall of Famer Randy Couture. The fight might be the co main event of the night along with a middleweight showdown between Brian Stann and Hector Lombard–who is making his UFC debut.

I said that the pairing is a little odd since the UFC has a tendency to pair up winners and losers not winners against losers. Plus a Shogun vs Machida 3 makes the most sense. Dana White was recently asked if he thought there was the possibility that Shogun and Machida could become TUF Brazil season 2 coaches, White said it was a good idea. With season 1 of TUF Brazil winding down, and both Shogun and Machida having summer fights, season 2 could start filming in the fall which could align the two Brazilian stars. The one thing about the Machida/ Bader fight that makes sense is that Machida is only one fight removed from a title shot and Bader, after losing two in a row, has put together two quality wins potentially bringing him back into contender status. A win for Machida or Bader could put one of them within one fight of a title shot–maybe against a guy like Alexander Gustafsson later in the year. With Phil Davis on the mend and Rashad Evans back in the fold, there are a lot of fights that make sense for the winner of this fight. Everyone seems to be jockeying for position to challenge Jon Jones. The only question is, who makes the most sense to the fans and the UFC? The answer is probably the one that is going to make them the most money.

Update 7/18/2012: The official fight card for UFC on FOX 4 is up. Hopefully there will be no other major injuries. The first four fights will air live on FOX.

Mauricio Shogun Rua v Brandon Vera
Lyoto Machida v Ryan Bader
Travis Browne v Ben Rothwell
Joe Lauzon v Jamie Varner
Cole Miller v Nam Phan
Phil Davis v Wagner Prado
Mike Swick v DaMarques Johnson
Josh Grispi v Rani Yahya
Phil De Fries v Oli Thompson
Manvel Gamburyan v Michihiro Omigawa
Matt Mitrione v Rob Broughton