A peek at Lyoto Machida's undefeated MMA record reveals that the brilliant Karateka hasn't lost a fight in 16 professional contests. He's defeated legends of the sport in Tito Ortiz, B.J. Penn and Rich Franklin, taken out solid veterans in Stephan Bonnar, Vernon White, and Kazuhiro Nakamura, and stopped budding MMA up-and-comers like Sokoudjou, Thiago Silva, and Rashad Evans.

Impressively, Machida did all of this without so much as losing a round in any one of the aforementioned fights. However, in his last outing, Machida, who won a razor-thin decision over Mauricio "Shogun" Rua at UFC 104, lost more than just a round.

He looked tentative and according to the majority of fans, insiders and fighters polled, he lost the five round affair. He was roundly booed by fans in attendance when the decision was announced that all three judges had determined Machida the victor.

UFC President Dana White shared the fans' displeasure with the decision and called for an immediate rematch. White wanted a quick turn-around and attempted to sign both fighters onto his annual year-end show at UFC 108 on Jan. 2.

However, he was forced to settle for a May rematch instead after Machida revealed that he had undergone surgery days after the fight to repair an injured hand he suffered in training. Apparently, Machida had admirably fought with the injury rather than call off the match up.

He looks to return to training in January.

"I had surgery five days after the fight," Machida told Tatame.com. "They took out fragments of bones. Hopefully in January I can come back and train. In eight days I will get an immobilizer shot, but right now I'm doing aerobic training -- running to help speed up my recovery time. Physical therapy starts next week."

Machida will look to erase boos and any doubt about his place at the top of the UFC's light-heavyweight division when he takes on Shogun in May, although bout agreements have yet to be signed.

"The fight has been verbally agreed upon, but for now, we don't have a written contract," Machida said. "But the fight was promised and it will happen. I think we learned a lot from this fight, both he and I. Maybe I needed to get in a bit of trouble to help me evolve. But for now, I have not stopped to analyze the changes that need to take place before our next fight. I'll do that after I start training again in January. Right now I'm enjoying this time to recover mentally and physically."

With plenty of time to properly recover from his injuries and train to face Rua at 100-percent this time around, Machida has turned his attention to greater issues surrounding his division; including the insertion of close friend and training partner Antonio Rogerio Nogueira.

"My division has many, many Brazilians, which is very good for the sport and for everybody, so I have to worry about what I need to do to keep that belt for a long time, but I think this fight can hardly happen between us," said Machida. "We have the same manager, are on the same team and we have a very good relationship. I think very highly of him and this fight is not tasteful to me. But we are here to fight. Let's just see what happens in the future."