With Jones vs. Machida at UFC 140, Evans Odd Man Out Again at LinesMaker

With Jones vs. Machida at UFC 140, Evans Odd Man Out Again

Yes­ter­day, spec­u­la­tion mounted that Jon Jones, fresh off his title defense against Quin­ton Jack­son at UFC 135, would fight Rashad Evans in the main event of UFC 140 in Toronto. UFC pres­i­dent reacted angrily to that spec­u­la­tion, and now we know why he was so angry. It turns out that a main event for Jones was in the works, but one where he will face for­mer champ Lyoto Machida.

Machida’s last bout was a knock­out of Randy Cou­ture in May. When Phil Davis fell out of his August bout with Rashad Evans, Machida was approached to fill in on short notice, but he asked for too much money and the UFC brought in Tito Ortiz, instead. Machida, who is 1–2 in his last three fights, now gets a title shot.

Once again, Rashad Evans, who has been “next in line” for a title shot since beat­ing Jack­son last May, is once again pushed to the side. He has been reha­bil­i­tat­ing a bro­ken hand. Pins were removed yes­ter­day, and he could start train­ing in three weeks.

Unfor­tu­nately, that’s not quick enough for the UFC, who was in need of a main event for the Toronto event. This is the promotion’s sec­ond trip to Toronto this year, and they needed to make a splash. With tick­ets on sale next week, a main event was needed to sell it, and Evans was the big loser.

Bet­ter plan­ning could have pre­vented this. Between Aug. 27 and Nov. 12, every UFC belt has been or will be con­tested. Instead of jam­ming so much into this time period, the UFC could have looked ahead to their Toronto event and planned a title defense for it, or put the Brock Lesnar vs. Alis­tair Overeem fight as the main event. Jones not sus­tain­ing a seri­ous injury at 135 was a stroke of luck, or they might have had to scram­ble for a main event.

Related: Jon Jones, Lyoto Machida, Rashad Evans, UFC 140

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• Rashad Evans Will Head­line UFC on Fox 2 in Chicago

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