With Vitor Belfort out of the picture it is now the time of "The Dragon" as the fight has been changed to Machida vs Weidman for the UFC Middleweight Championship!

With wins over Mark Munoz and Gegard Mousasi, Lyoto "The Dragon" Machida is now going to fight for the UFC middleweight Championship vs Chris Weidman and it seems like he thinks it's his unique striking style that will give him the win come May 24, 2014.

Styles makes fights, and Machida is confident that his lightning fast striking game and good takedown defense will be the key to hand Weidman his first loss in MMA.

"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," he said. "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."

A win at UFC 173 would be a historic one for Machida. The Brazilian, a former light heavyweight champion, will join B.J. Penn and Randy Couture as the only fighters to win UFC belts in multiple weight classes if he beats Weidman in Las Vegas, but he's not paying attention to those stats yet.

"This is the consequence of our work. I can't focus on that," he said. "Records and numbers are cool, everybody wants that, but I try not to think about that."

"The Dragon" is widely considered an underdog against Weidman after Weidman beat Machida's training parter, Anderson Silva.

However, Lyoto Machida doesn't care about his underdog status vs Weidman:

"I don't pay attention to those things," he said. "I got to a stage in my career where I'm more focused in what I'm doing than in what people bet or what is Weidman training. That's what matters. The experience that I have and what I've done makes me more comfortable in a situation like this."