To get titleshot, Machida cheers for Jardine

[JuniorVT]

http://www.tatame.com/2009/02/16/To-get ... or-Jardine

At UFC 86, Quinton "Rampage" Jackson had his belt pulled by Forrest Griffin in a unanimous – and controversy - decision. Returning from defeat with an impressive knockout on Wanderlei Silva, Rampage is one step closer to a titleshot, but one Brazilian is directly interested in the result of this fight. Undefeated after 14 fights in his career, six in the UFC, Lyoto Machida knocked Thiago Silva out in UFC 94, but must cheer for Keith Jardine’s victory against Quinton before in order to face the champion, Rashad Evans.



"I'm cheering for Jardine, but I think that Quinton is stronger, hits harder... I think Quinton is the favorite. I think I’ll have to wait a bit more", recognizes the fighter, who expects to make another fight over this period. "I could do one more fight, but only if they (UFC) give me a good opponent, a man with strong name. I don’t want to go down again. All that the UFC putted, I always joined, but now is time for me to start to ask a bit too".



"I'm waiting Quinton’s fight, but I’m not worried. Everyone was saying that, if I win (Thiago Silva), I’d fight for the belt, but it didn’t happen, but I’m not worried about that. Imagine if I were thinking about the next fight and lose this one? It's the same thing now, I'm here, solving some things and I'm already thinking about returning to Belém and practice my base for, then, start to worry about my next battle, either by title or not", said a confident Machida: "I just need to make good fights and it will happen…When I get there, it will be just party".



About the knockout against Thiago Silva, Lyoto celebrates his first knockout in the UFC. "We changed some things in the training, we started to get better opportunities for fights. My training is very technical. I’ve changed many things and it gave a positive result", celebrates the fighter, who couldn’t meet with the athlete of ATT after the fight. "I couldn’t talk to Thiago after the fight, I would like praise him. This is a professional thing, it’s not to be upset with each other... The fight happens in the octagon, and then it ends", concludes.

[NWOWolfpack]

At 14-0........................Machida deserves a title shot now regardless of what happens between Rampage and Jardine...................