Dana White changes his tune, Lyoto Machida and Ryan Bader brought into title picture
UFC President, Dana White has today changed his tune over the rewards on offer for those competing in the UFC on FOX 4 main and co-main events set for this weekend in Los Angeles, California, explaining the most impressive winner of the four men involved will get the next shot at the light heavyweight title.
Speaking via MMAJunkie.com, Dana said:
“Whoever wins the most impressively on Saturday night gets the shot at the title. I put together the fights that fans want to see. The fans didn’t like the Rua and Vera choice, so here it is: The guy that wins most impressively on Saturday night out of the co-main event and the main event will get the shot at the winner of Jon Jones vs. Dan Henderson.”
“There’s no doubt that Vera is getting the opportunity of a lifetime. He’s getting the opportunity of a lifetime, but we’ll see what happens. We’ll see if he makes the most of it.”
Rua is coming off a UFC 139 defeat to fellow PRIDE veteran, Dan Henderson last November, going down via unanimous decision on the night. He was expected to be facing Quinton “Rampage” Jackson next but the American was forced into having double knee surgery.
Vera is a strange choice for an opponent for the Brazilian after winning just one of his last four fights inside the octagon. That win came last time out against Eliot Marshall via unanimous decision, with the man dubbed “The Truth” almost throwing it away in the final round.
Bader had rocketed up the 205 pound ranks before back-to-back losses inside the octagon last year to Jon Jones and Tito Ortiz. He has since rebounded with a couple of nice wins over Jason Brilz and Quinton “Rampage” Jackson.
Machida will be looking to recapture the kind of form that saw him win the title back in 2009 and looked unstoppable in doing so. He has lost three of his last four bouts to Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and Jon Jones. His only win was over Randy Couture.
By Michael Pepper. (Follow me on Twitter)
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