(I’ll never let go, Lyoto. I’ll never let go…)

We’re of two minds about the latest interview snippet from Lyoto Machida’s manager, Jorge Guimaraes, in which he all but sealed the door on the potential of a Machida/Alexander Gustafsson fight following the Swede’s call out of Machida some weeks ago. On one hand, Machida was promised a title shot with a win over Dan Henderson at UFC 157, and to his credit, he was able to do so (albeit in rather tepid fashion). On the other hand, Dana White then promised Gustafsson a title shot with a win over Gegard Mousasi before that all fell apart.

But on the third hand, Machida was offered a shot against Jon Jones on short notice at UFC 152, then turned the goddamn thing down. Throw in the fact that Jones already choked Machida unconscious at UFC 140 and couldn’t care less if he ever fought Machida again, and it would appear that the Brazilian isn’t exactly in the position to be making demands. Regardless, Guimaraes told Lancenet that Machida would prefer to sit on the sidelines until this whole Jones/Sonnen nonsense is finished (translation via FightersOnly):

Lyoto is on stand-by list waiting for the winner of Jon Jones vs. Chael Sonnen. I think it is almost impossible for Chael to win this bout, but anything may happen. A fight is a fight, but it has already been scheduled, there’s no history about it.

Lyoto is the number one contender and he is only waiting to see who is going to be the winner of this fight. He is not convinced about Jones…he is not convinced from that loss.

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(Ain’t no tantrum like a Big Rigg tantrum)

In the whole welterweight/middleweight title/super-fight mess of excitment and speculation going on right now, number one 170 pound contender Johny Hendricks is one of the few people giving real talk. “I’m not going to fight unless it’s for a belt,” Hendricks told MMAJunkie Radio Friday.

The former NCAA Division I wrestling national champion solidified himself as the number one contender to Georges St. Pierre’s welterweight crown with five straight wins, his last three against Jon Fitch, Josh Koscheck and Martin Kampmann. Despite earning his shot, Hendricks is far from a lock to be the next one to fight St. Pierre.

Middleweight champion Anderson Silva is chasing a super fight with the Canadian and St. Pierre surrogates are lobbying for his next fight to be against his rival Nick Diaz. Diaz is currently serving a suspension for testing positive for marijuana metabolites before his last fight, a loss to Carlos Condit.

(One of these guys will likely get the winner of Showtime-Bendo II)

The UFC held a press conference in New York City today for the May 5 UFC on Fox 3 show, which we would have covered live, had they not rejected our credential application AGAIN. Thankfully we still have access to these things via YouTube.

Probably the most interesting tidbit to come out of the event was Dana White’s assertion that the winner of the Jim Miller-Nate Diaz bout would likely be the next in line for a title shot after Anthony Pettis.

It makes sense, even though Nate is only 2-0 in his current run as a lightweight and Jim lost his last bout against Ben Henderson. When you look at the fact that Diaz beat Melvin Guillard and Donald Cerrone as a lightweight, has only lost to Gray Maynard, Clay Guida and Joe Stevenson in the Octagon at 155 and he has never been finished and that prior to losing to the current champ, Miller had only ever been defeated by Frankie Edgar and Maynard, it makes sense.

Really, besides giving Edgar another shot — which he really should have to earn, considering he lost fair and square to Henderson — who else deserves a crack at the belt?

Tickets for the May 5 event, that takes place in New Jersey at the Izod Center, go on sale tomorrow.

Check out the full vid of the presser after the jump.

(Video courtesy of YouTube/FightHubTV)

When Mark Munoz politely mentioned that he wouldn’t be opposed to fighting his friend and sometimes training partner, UFC middleweight champ Anderson Silva Saturday following his impressive win over Chris Leben in Birmingham, England, many of us were surprised, given the fact that the majority of fighters in the UFC seem reluctant to fight their pals.

Then he recanted and said that, actually he’d like to fight Michael Bisping instead, which made a lot more sense considering that a few fights ago Yushin Okami made us forget that Munoz was a top-tier wrestler.

Well, he’s back at it again.

In an interview “The Filipino Wrecking Machine” did with FightHubTV.com’s Marcos Villegas yesterday, the dangerous UFC middleweight touched on a number of topics, including why he’d take the fight, what it would mean to his friendship with Silva and why he doesn’t think Chael Sonnen deserves the next crack at the belt.

Brass tacks after the jump.

UFC president Dana White today proved our sneaking suspicion that Vitor Belfort being dropped from his UFC 122 bout with Yushin Okami had little to do with him being injured, as was originally incorrectly reported by MMAWeekly, and a lot to do with Chael Sonnen being unable to face Anderson Silva at the UFC’s planned NYE show.

Although White didn’t tweet a date for the eventual showdown, the CP magic 8-ball points to the January 1 UFC 125 card that Sonnen was scheduled to face Silva on.

Demian Maia’s camp may have been expecting a middleweight title shot in August, but instead they’re getting what can only be considered a number one contender match with Nate Marquardt.  Maia confirmed the news on his official website, saying the fight is on for UFC 102 in Portland, Oregon.  Obviously it’s one hell of an interesting bout on paper, but the timing of this announcement begs the question, did Anderson Silva screw Maia out of a title shot with his performance against Thales Leites at UFC 97?

A source close to the camp of UFC middleweight contender Demian Maia has informed Cage Potato that the Brazilian is expected to be offered the next middleweight title shot against the winner of the Anderson Silva/Thales Leites bout (in other words, Silva) late this summer.

There’s no official date set, but our source says Maia’s camp is expecting the bout to take place in late August, which would most likely put it at UFC 102 in Portland, Ore.  The middleweight title bout would certainly bolster a card that’s rumored to be headlined by Randy Couture returning home to the Pacific Northwest to take on Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. 

If anybody’s earned a shot at the middleweight strap, it’s Maia.  The undefeated submissions wiz made Chael Sonnen look like a novice in his last bout, and his jiu-jitsu skills would offer a challenge that we haven’t yet seen Silva face during his run as UFC champion.

Stay tuned for more details as they emerge.

(Go ahead.  Tell Chuck you forgot to order the ice cream cake for his birthday party.  I’m sure he’ll understand.)

As Chuck Liddell prepares to try and prove to Dana White and the rest of the MMA world that he still belongs in the UFC, some recent comments seem to suggest that he maybe he has suffered serious head trauma after all.  Regarding his goal to take back the UFC light heavyweight strap, Liddell told Fighters Only:

“I don’t plan on letting [Rashad Evans] stay champ for long. I thought I was winning that fight. I made a mistake, got caught and dropped. I was winning the fight up until then.  People ask me about retiring after that fight. It wasn’t like I got my ass kicked and then got knocked out. I was winning the fight, got sloppy for a second and got caught. I made a mistake.”

[Sigh]  I can’t help but feel like he’s using the old ‘got caught’ explanation as a crutch here.  Yes, he got caught in the sense that he left himself wide open and was absolutely hammered by a right hand from Evans.  But he wasn’t really winning the fight up until then.  He wasn’t losing, either.  The fight was fairly even with little significant action.  And then he got knocked out.

After arranging a visit by BJ Penn to his Army unit at Fort Lewis, MMA writer Kelly Crigger was inspired to dig deeper into the subculture of mixed martial arts, and find out what would compel a person to sacrifice all worldly comforts for the opportunity to beat up a stranger in a cage. Over the next year, he visited leading MMA camps including Team Quest, American Top Team, and Sityodtong, and interviewed fighters at every level of the game. The result is Title Shot: Into the Shark Tank of Mixed Martial Arts, which, no bullshit, is probably the most insightful and essential exploration of the MMA lifestyle that you’ll ever read. We highly suggest that you buy it, but you also have a chance to win a signed copy right here.

Check out the photo above — one of thousands that Crigger took during the preparation of his book — which shows The Prodigy at the Fort Lewis shooting range. (As Crigger explains: “We took him out to bust some caps, but he couldn’t learn to hold the weapon for shit.”) The two readers who provide the best captions in the comments section below will win a signed copy of Title Shot. Contest ends Sunday night at midnight ET; feel free to enter multiple times. Good luck…

(Whose house? KenFlo’s house.)

As MMA fighters go, Kenny Florian is as intelligent and articulate a guy as you can hope to find. He’s also a workaholic and an ever-evolving bad-ass in the cage, and his next test against the formidable Roger Huerta should answer any lingering questions as to who deserves to be the UFC’s top lightweight contender. Whether B.J. Penn will stick around to defend his 155-pound title, well, that’s another issue altogether.

In this exclusive interview with KenFlo we discuss training strategies, Roger Huerta’s apparent dissatisfaction with the UFC, being an ESPN MMA analyst, and more.

CagePotato.com: Hey Kenny, thanks for talking with me. How has your training for this fight been going?

Everything’s been going really well. My training camp was awesome. I really didn’t take too much time off. After the Lauzon fight I think I was back in the gym the following week and I wasn’t completely pleased, technically speaking, with my performance, so I wanted to get right back in the gym and improve on those things. With all the commitments I had before this fight, the traveling and all that, I’m glad I got a jump on it early.

What were you displeased with about your performance against Lauzon?

Joe Lauzon just shouldn’t have taken me down like he did. That was the main thing, was the wrestling angle of it. I just wanted to get back and get my hands on a quality wrestling coach so I could really improve in that area. It’s one thing to be able to do it in training, but it needs to be second nature in order for you to use it when you need it in a fight. So I found a great wrestling coach who’s just been a phenomenal addition to my team.

I’ve just been working on a lot of the fundamentals of wrestling, both defensively and offensively, and working on making sure I’m doing things right technically. With wrestling in particular you get a lot of people who will tell you ‘Oh, you should do it this way or that way,’ but having a world class guy to show you this is the way it should be done and here’s why, it gets it into your muscle memory and makes you a stronger fighter.

What do you think Roger Huerta’s greatest strength is as a fighter?