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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
After both Mauricio "Shogun" Rua and Lyoto Machida earned stoppage wins at UFC on Fox 4 on Saturday night, UFC President Dana White was left with a decision to make. The fighter with the most impressive win was promised a title fight against the winner of Jon Jones vs. Dan Henderson from UFC 151, and both had made a claim for the fight.
White ultimately went with Machida, who knocked out Ryan Bader in the second round while essentially avoiding all damage in a dominant performance. Shogun defeated Brandon Vera, but in a much more labored affair.
But there was more to it than the performances themselves, as White pointed to Machida's hunger for another shot at the title as reason for choosing him over Rua, not to mention his thoughts on Rua turning down a fight with Glover Teixeira for this card.
"Leading up to this fight, 'Shogun' did turn down a fight," White said after the event (via MMAJunkie.com). "'Shogun' has not been terrorizing me for another shot at Jon Jones. Lyoto Machida has. Lyoto Machida wants it... His management has been all over me, terrorizing me to get him back to the title. What I can tell you is he wants it bad. That's very important to me – how bad a guy actually wants that fight – and Machida wants it bad."
"I'm sure Lyoto has laid in bed every night since that fight thinking of all the things he should have done and what he could do and what's possible. Now he's got it, so we'll see. We'll find out."
Penick's Analysis: From a competitive standpoint, Machida's the only fighter in the last couple of years who has had any semblance of success against Jones. Yes, it was only for one round, and yes, he still got stopped, but he's the only one who has had Jones off his game for even a short period of time. He's not likely to have much more success in a rematch, but of all of the options, he's the most capable of improving on the mistakes he made in his first bout with Jones, and as such he's the best option in a division that doesn't have a lot of legitimate challengers right now. Jones defeating everyone has that effect. But Machida was the rightful pick at this stage, even if no one's truly clamoring for the rematch right now.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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