Dan Henderson was expected to take on Jon Jones for the UFC light heavyweight championship at UFC 151 on September 1. Unfortunately, the former Strikeforce/PRIDE champ had to pull out due to a knee injury. The UFC then announced that Lyoto Machida would step in and take on Jones for his title on September 22 at UFC 152. To everyone’s surprise, Machida turned down the offer and now Jones will be taking on Vitor Belfort in the main event.
Machida made his way back into the title picture and was set to take on whomever won at UFC 151 when he defeated Ryan Bader at UFC on FOX 4. However, not taking the fight with Jones has pushed him down the ladder and he will not get an immediate title shot.
Nor will Dan Henderson, who was initially supposed to face Jones. When he pulled out due to injury he forfeited his place as the number one contender.
Now one of these two will lose their number one contender status. Well, that’s what Dana White told MMAFighting.com earlier this week.
“[Machida] should have taken the fight. We’ve seen it, history always repeats itself. Look how long it took Rashad (Evans) to fight for the title again. So you wanted to fight Jon Jones, you climbed up to the title fight and you don’t take it. Now you’re fighting (expletive) Dan Henderson. Now you might not even get to the (expletive) title again. You lose to Dan Henderson you’re not anywhere near Jon Jones. You jump on opportunities when they’re available. You get a shot at the title, the biggest money fight you can be in, the highest profile fight you can be in. And if you win that (expletive) fight, the whole world changes overnight.”
No word on when this fight will take place, but look for it to go down later this year.
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