Dana White stated Sunday morning that Lyoto Machida is now the #1 contender. What he did NOT say that Machida would be fighting the winner of Jon Jones & Chael Sonnen, which is over 2 months away. Lets take a look into the LHW immediate future, shall we?

Let me preface my statements by saying that this is not my opinion on what should happen. This is me guessing what the UFC will do based on how they have been booking fights. Dan Henderson, Rashad Evans, Shogun Rua, & Little Nog should be getting matched up agaisnt one another & thus not in the title picture.

Now by the time Jon Jones & Chael Sonnen meet, Alexander Gustafsson & Gegard Mousasi will have gone down as will have Daniel Cormier vs Frank Mir. For the sake of arguement, lets say Cormier & Jones both win as they are huge favorites. Gus vs Mousasi is a little closer but again for the sake of agrguement im going to go with the favorite Gus. Bader/Glover goes down on May 25th, but winner would be behind Machida, Gus/Mousasi, & DC. So in this scenario Jon Jones would be left with these options:

-DC smashes Mir on FOX in front of 3.5 mil ppl

-Mousasi/Gus winner on Fuel in front of 200 k ppl max

-Machida, who is 2 fights removed from Bones stealing his soul & was not overly impressive vs Hendo.

Who do you think they're going to give the title shot too? Its a bussiness guys & winning in front of 3.5 million people just a week before the Champion you call out wins will have the momentum & buzz of the fans, media, & UFC brass.

Dont be suprised to see a fall ppv planned out at UFC 165 or so looking like this:

Main Event- Jon Jones vs Daniel Cormier

Co-Main event- Lyoto Machida vs Alexander Gustafsson/Gegard Mousasi