Clearly Lyoto has been working consciously on making sure his non-punching hand is in position to block Jones' attempts to counter, but this was just a month ago and he still got clipped by Ryan Bader who is an inaccurate striker for the most part. To take a fight next month with Jon Jones would simply be lunacy when Machida has so much specific work to do on his style and gameplan.
Lyoto has the tools to defeat Jon Jones, he demonstrated that in the much referred to first round of their bout, but to rush a title shot would be throwing away what could be his last chance at the light heavyweight crown. This should be obvious to almost everyone: Chael Sonnen is not a light heavyweight, not a striker, and not likely to be able to give Jon Jones any trouble on the feet.
This is clearly a hilarious mismatch and it's actually understandable that Jones would not want anything to do with this fight when it could lower his credibility immediately after signing with Nike. No-one wants to fight enormous mismatches when they are supposed to be proving that they are the best fighter in the world.
On the other hand, this match was an absolute gift in terms of publicity. Chael Sonnen has proven one thing over the last three years; that he can talk up a fight which on paper is an enormous mismatch. No-one rated him as having a chance at Anderson Silva in their first bout, in fact many were disappointed at yet another mediocre middleweight title match being put together, but the amount of smack talking Sonnen did made people pay attention.
It was the same with the rematch - Sonnen had lost the first bout with Silva the exact same way he had lost almost every other bout in his career but he still managed to make people pay to see the rematch. It is interesting that Sonnen began his smack talk campaign against Jon Jones just days before his former team mate and friend, Dan Henderson dropped out of UFC It is certainly worth considering that at least Sonnen knew about Henderson's inability to compete long before Jones did.
In that respect I can understand where Jones is coming from, he could feel like he has been set up to have his opponent switched at the last minute. What it all comes down to, however, is that almost two dozen fighters on this card have made huge sacrifices, many of them living fight to fight on tight cash, for a card that is now cancelled. Jon Jones directly affected their livelihood and the lives of their families and children by refusing to fight a lbs wrestler.
It's understandable that Jones wouldn't want to risk losing to a middleweight, but that's exactly what he was risking against Dan Henderson. Jon Jones trained a full camp for a lbs wrestler with a huge right hand, and he was asked to fight a lbs wrestler with little striking skill or punching power to speak of.
When you boil it down to those facts, it's hard to side with Jon Jones. Vitor Belfort is a fighter for whom I have mixed feelings; he clearly has some of the most dangerous striking in MMA, but he's continually given mismatches.
Yoshihiro Akiyama had absolutely no business fighting Belfort, and neither did Anthony Johnson. The notable exception being Anthony 'Rumble' Johnson who came in grossly overweight, took Vitor down twice and was immediately stood up by the referee until he was exhausted enough for Vitor to take his back and choke him.
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