Former UFC light heavyweight champion, Lyoto Machida has urged for fans and critics alike to cool their jets when it comes to the rise to prominence of current light heavyweight champion, Jon Jones, adding it’s too early to declare this the ‘Jon Jones era’ after they got it wrong with him. Speaking via Tatame Magazine, Machida said:
“Sometimes a guy does not need to be very experienced, because sometimes the guy is good. I think the same way. I saw [Jones] and said this guy had the potential to reach. But as we said, this [light-heavyweight] category is much disputed and it is difficult to tell if the guy will stay champion long.”
“When I won, everybody said I’d stay long. But it happens that you become a target, you become much studied, you are much persecuted, everybody wants to beat you… Of course he has physical qualities and techniques to stay for long. We, as his opponents, have to study the best way to beat him because he is very strong physically.”
“I think my style is very different from most people, and I believe in my style, but one thing is that with all sincerity, I have not thought of it. I am not in a position to compete for a title, not at this time. Everything can change in a matter of days, but not what is happening now. The next step we are going to Couture, the next step is most important to me.”
Machida returns to the octagon at the end of this month when he takes on “Hall of Famer”, Randy Couture at UFC 129 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The karate expert is in desperate need of a win after losing the last two fights of his professional MMA career.
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