In the ever-changing climate of the UFC it looks like another top contender has seen his title-shot laid to waste based on the discretion of promotional president Dana White. Light heavyweight Lyoto Machida, who earned his crack at the championship with a knockout of Ryan Bader last month, recently decided to pass on a short notice bout with 205-pound king Jon Jones based on the reduced amount of time he had been given to prepare. Apparently, not wanting to risk his opportunity without a full camp wasn’t received well by his bosses.
“Machida is not next in line now. He will need to fight somebody else first,” said White on this week’s episode of UFC Tonight.
“Before this happened, he was terrorizing me for a title shot. Then he said four weeks wasn’t enough,” White added angrily.
Machida Details Decision to Turn Down Title-Fight
While White’s words might upset some fighters, Machida’s camp have said in the past he would face any opponent with the right training in place and was open to competing again without a belt being on the line. “The Dragon” is a former champion himself, beating Rashad Evans in 2009 to lay claim to the gold.
PHOTO CREDIT – UFC
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