A key middleweight bout between Gegard Mousasi and Lyoto Machida co-headlined tonight’s Bellator 228 event in Los Angeles.

Tonight’s fight served as a rematch, as Mousasi and Machida had previously met in the Octagon at UFC Fight Night 36 in February of 2014. There, they were the ‘fight of the night’ but it was Machida who did enough to edge out a unanimous decision.

“The Dragon” most recently fought at Bellator 222 where he TKO’d Chael Sonnen. The former UFC light heavyweight champion has gone 2-0 since joining the Bellator ranks and entered tonight’s event on a four fight winning streak.

Meanwhile, Gegard Mousasi is coming off a split decision loss to Rafael Lovato Jr in his last contest, surrendering his Bellator middleweight title in the process.

Prior to the setback, Mousasi was riding an eight fight win streak which included victories over Rory MacDonald, Vitor Belfort, Chris Weidman and Uriah Hall.

Tonight’s rematch proved to be a closely contested battle. Gegard Mousasi had the better volume early, but Machida almost finished the fight with a guillotine late in round three. After fifteens minutes of action we went to the judges scorecards for decision.

Check out the highlights below:

https://twitter.com/bellatormma/status/1178174661252849665?s=21

Official Bellator 228 Result: Mousasi def. Machida via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 30-27)

Who would you like to see Gegard Mousasi fight next following his split decision victory over Lyoto Machida this evening in Los Angeles? Sound off in the comments section Penn Nation!

This article first appeared on bjpenn.com September 28, 2019