A blockbuster light-heavyweight bout was coming to UFC 140. For a short time anyway.
UFC president Dana White said he jumped the gun in announcing that former champ Lyoto Machida (17-2 MMA, 9-2 UFC) will meet fast-rising and undefeated contender Phil Davis (9-0 MMA, 5-0 UFC) at December's UFC 140 event.
Instead, he said Davis is still recovering from a knee injury.
Fighter representatives told MMAjunkie.com (
www.mmajunkie.com) they were still awaiting official word on the matchup as of earlier today. But at a UFC 139 press conference today in San Jose, Calif., White told MMAWeekly.com the fight is slated for UFC 140 and could be contested as a five-round non-title fight.
White, though, said he spoke prematurely.
"I jumped the gun on Machida vs Davis," White later tweeted. "Just found out Davis is still recovering from knee surgery. Sorry about that!"
UFC 140 takes place Dec. 10 at Air Canada Centre in Toronto with a heavyweight headliner between Frank Mir and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira.
Machida recently rebounded from a title loss to Mauricio "Shogun" Rua and an extremely close split-decision loss to Quinton Jackson in his next bout with a vicious second-round knockout of fellow ex-titleholder Randy Couture at UFC 129 in April. The Brazilian fighter, who suffered the first losses of his career with the skid, had been asked to fill in for Davis when he pulled out of a UFC 133 co-headliner with Rashad Evans back in August, but his reps and UFC officials couldn't agree on financial terms for the late-notice booking.
Machida, who won the title from Evans and defended it once (over Rua in their first meeting), is still likely a future opponent for Davis, a former NCAA Division I national wrestling champion at Penn State. Since his move to pro MMA just three years ago, he's racked up nine straight victories, including UFC wins over the likes of Brian Stann, Alexander Gustafsson, Rodney Wallace and Tim Boetsch. Most recently, he scored a hard-fought decision victory over veteran Antonio Rogerio Nogueira back in March at UFC on Versus 3.
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