This is Machida's opportunity to redeem himself and show Dana he can be a company man and step up for a modest amount of money. In the casual eye Machida's name is much bigger than Rogerio's anyway.
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It wont happen. Machida is looking for bigger fish to fry. Chael Sonnen should throw his hat into the mix for the fight with Franklin.
sokoudjou_1 - It wont happen. Machida is looking for bigger fish to fry. Chael Sonnen should throw his hat into the mix for the fight with Franklin.
Chael has been callin' Richie out since UFC 104!!
BehemothMonk - The thing I don't understand is, doesn't Tito Ortiz make like half a million dollars a fight? Wouldn't that be more than Anderson Silva money? So wouldn't it of made more financial sense to just give the fight to Machida and save money and have a better main event? But than again Ortiz is more of a draw than Machida so I think Dana was just pulling strings here.
Silva makes over a million per fight. The "reported payouts" omit a fuckload of disclosed pay. According to Dana, Tito "isn't in the same universe" as Anderson when it comes to pay.
Lyoto fought Rich Franklin once before in Japan. Rich got brutally knocked out. They could have a re-match, but I don't see Franklin redeeming himself in a second fight. Machida has gotten even better since that first fight.