[XFactah416]

Quote: Originally Posted by aholbert32

Evans would have been able to start training in 3 weeks. Schedule the fight for Feb, you pull Jones and have him wait until Feb to fight Evans. Mir and Nog could headline the Toronto card and have Machida fight a Gustofsson or another up and coming LHW. It is what it is but you cant tell me Machida deserves another shot after technically losing 3 of his last 4. And you are wrong about Rampage. After he lost to Forrest, he beat Silva, Jardine, Machida and Hamill. Also the people who matter (Dana and Joe Silva) both thought Rampage beat Machida.

When you said Rampage won 4 fights, I thought you meant 4 in a row. So, you're right that Rampage had to win 4 fights to get his title shot.

Why waste Gustaffson and derail him against Lyoto? Gustaffsson needs gradual steps up in competition and Lyoto is a consensus top 5 LHW. Lyoto also needs "big" fights now. Gustaffson is not a "big" fight for Lyoto.

I never said Lyoto deserves the title shot. But it is undeniable that this is a matchup that people want to see, and everyone is seemingly occupied at LHW (Evans hurt, Hendo / Shogun booked against each other, Phil Davis injured, Forrest with a kid and no motivation whatsoever, Rich Franklin hurt too I think?). Nobody wants to see Lyoto vs Forrest, or Lyoto vs Phil Davis even for that matter. The UFC has never been about matching up guys who "deserve" title shots unless they absolutely have no choice to either.

I also doubt Seagal is torn. He wanted to try and leech onto Jones's name and Jones had none of it. His allegiance clearly lies with Lyoto in this fight.