On today’s UFC 157 conference call, Lyoto “The Dragon” Machida sounded off on the implications of his upcoming bout with Dan Henderson.
Machida, who is coming off a win over Ryan Bader at UFC on Fox 4 in August, said the winner of UFC 157’s co-main event deserves a crack at Jon Jones. For the “Dragon”, this would mean facing Jones in a rematch after having been put asleep by the champion via guillotine choke at UFC 140 in December.
“I believe, out of this fight, whoever wins should definitely be the contender for the title,” Machida said. “If we’re number one and number two then the title shot should definitely be on the line for this fight.”
Henderson was scheduled to fight Jones for September’s UFC 151main event, but the event was canceled due to an injury to Henderson, and in turn Jones’ refusal to switch opponents on short notice. Henderson, who rides a four fight win streak is coming off an even longer layoff, last fighting over one year ago at UFC 139 when he defeated Mauricio “Shogun” Rua in an epic five round main event decision.
The two decorated light heavyweights will duke it out on February 23rd at the Honda Center in Anaheim, setting the stage for the UFC’s first female bout between bantamweight champion, Ronda Rousey, and contender Liz Carmouche.