Lyoto Machida wants no part of any pity parties following his UFC 140 loss to Jon Jones.
The former light heavyweight champion has gathered a small crowd of supporters after he was choked unconscious by the current champ.
After choking Machida out with a modified guillotine from the standing position, Jones merely released the hold and allowed his opponent’s body to crumple to the canvas.
While there are a plethora of fans condemning Jones’ actions, Machida sees nothing wrong with the way things went down. He felt like Jones did what he was supposed to do.
“It was totally respectful to me,” Machida told SPORTV.com (via Google translation). “It was a shocking [end] to the story. Sometimes, those who hear may [wonder] if there was any disrespect, but he did his job, choked me and won. You can’t ask him to make love to me, right?”
Before the choke, Machida did a tremendous job of making the seemingly invincible Jones look human for a change. He made things tough on the champion with great timing and pinpoint accuracy in the stand-up exchanges.
“My first round showed that there are loopholes in the game of Jon Jones. I knew that you could find the way to these gaps. I was just waiting for the right time,” said Machida. “It’s good for the future opponent because no one is invincible.”
Jones may not be invincible, but as of now, he seems virtually unstoppable in the light heavyweight division. In 2011 alone, he has decimated three former world champions and MMA legends in Machida, Mauricio “Shogun” Rua and Quinton “Rampage” Jackson.
Despite being stopped the earliest, Machida came the closest out of all three in figuring out a way to deal with Jones’ otherworldly abilities.
Looking back, there are things “The Dragon” admits he would do differently. The tide turned completely in the fight when Jones secured a takedown in the second round and opened up a nasty gash on Machida’s forehead with a well-placed elbow.
“I would’ve used more of my recovery time,” admitted Machida. “After he hit the elbow and the referee stopped the fight, I could not see, had so much blood in eye. I was entitled to it, but [I didn’t give myself enough time to come back]. Of course, the fight was live, and I had to press, but I could have had more time.”
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