Following his win over Ryan Bader at UFC on FOX 4, UFC President Dana White said that Lyoto Machida will be next in line for a title shot against the winner of Jon Jones and Dan Henderson.
With Henderson being injured and out of his fight with Jones, the UFC looked to make Jones vs. Machida II for September 22nd in Toronto.
The UFC announced the fight on a conference call, even though they had not received a bout agreement from Machida.
Machida ended up turning down the fight because he wanted more than four weeks to prepare for a rematch against Jones.
He asked the UFC if the fight could happen at UFC 153 on October 13th and the UFC said the fight would have to happen in September.
The UFC moved on from the former champion and White has now said that Machida is no longer the next guy in line for a title shot.
“When you turn down an opportunity to fight,” White said. “Things start going in another path and another direction. It happened to Rashad Evans. Evans was out of a fight for a year and a half. He (Machida) is not next in line and he will fight another fight.”
It’s unknown at this time when Machida will be back in the octagon and he has only fought once in 2012. With most of the top contenders already being booked for fights in the coming months, could a rematch with Rashad Evans be in his future? Evans has hinted about a possible move to middleweight, but it appears his next fight will be as a light heavyweight.