If Jon Jones gets by Dan Henderson at UFC 151, he won’t be salivating at the opportunity to fight Lyoto Machida again.
Jones, the UFC light heavyweight champion, told ESPN.com on Friday that he has no interest in fighting Machida a second time, despite UFC president Dana White announcing following UFC on FOX 4 that Machida was the No. 1 light heavyweight contender.
“I don’t want to fight Lyoto Machida,” Jones said. “He was my lowest pay-per-view draw of last year.
“No one wants to see me fight Lyoto Machida. I don’t want to fight Lyoto again. Lyoto is high risk and low reward.
“He’s a tough fighter, but no one wants to buy that fight.
“Between (Mauricio) Shogun (Rua), (Quinton) Rampage (Jackson) and Rashad (Evans), Lyoto was my lowest draw. Why would I want to fight someone where it’s a lose-lose situation? I won’t make money on it. And he’s a tricky fighter.”
Jones defeated Machida via standing guillotine choke at UFC 140 in December. His next title defense will be on Sept. 1 against Henderson, and he pointed out in the same article that he isn’t looking past “Hendo.”
Machida has only won once since losing to Jones last year. He knocked out Ryan Bader earlier this month in Los Angeles.