“Ed (Soares) called me and said ‘I think they had a problem with Vitor and you’ll have to fight for the title.’ I said sure, that’s great. I’ve fought a lot of wrestlers before, and I know Weidman has a good wrestling, but I’m confident on the work I’m developing with my team. I believe in my striking game against Weidman’s wrestling. He’s complete in every aspect of the game, but I’m confident in what I do.”

In a recent interview with MMAFighting.com, Lyoto Machida talked about his upcoming title fight against Chris Weidman.

Machida comes in as a replacement for, Vitor Belfort, who was forced to withdraw when the State of Nevada banned Testosterone Replacement Therapy.