Lyoto Machida believes Jon Jones has weaknesses to exploit in potential UFC Title rematch

By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

Lyoto Machida's knockout win over Ryan Bader at UFC on Fox 4 on Saturday night sets him up with another shot at regaining the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship later this year. The title fight will either come against Dan Henderson or in a rematch against Jon Jones, as those two men will square off on Sept. 1 at UFC 151.

If it's Jones for a second time, Machida will have his work cut out for him. Though he had some success in their first bout last December, he was ultimately hit by a couple of big strikes, then driven back to the cage and choked out by a standing guillotine.

It was a vicious and decisive finish, and he needs to find a better way to combat Jones in their rematch. He believes the young Champ has weaknesses to exploit, he's just got pinpoint them and then execute come fight night.

"It's very, very hard to say [what I'd do differently] because Jon is a very elusive fighter, very unpredictable fighter; you can't predict where he's going," Machida commented when speaking to Fuel TV on the after-show for Saturday's event (transcribed by MMAWeekly.com). "I think I'd keep the same training, try to keep my distance and my timing, maybe have to train a little more wrestling to avoid his techniques from wrestling.

"Of course he has a weak point, but because Jon is a very elusive fighter, all the time he changes his style; sometimes he kicks, sometimes he punches, he's very good with wrestling, but maybe I have to train more wrestling to avoid his takedown."

Whatever he needs to figure out, he'll have a few months to do so, and on Sept. 1 he'll find out for sure whether or not he's meeting Jones once more.

Penick's Analysis: Machida's a very intelligent fighter, and he's not easy to defeat. Mauricio "Shogun" was able to have success against him because he offset Machida's counter-striking style with an effective rush, allowing him to land his knockout blow. However, were the two to rematch today, I'd pick Machida to have made the adjustments necessary to defeat Rua. When it comes to Jones, Machida simply went up against the best light heavyweight fighter in the world. He landed some strikes early, kept Jones a little off his game, but all in all the fight went as most of Jones' fights have gone. Machida can improve upon that; he can. But it's not going to be an easy task.

[Lyoto Machida art by Grant Gould (c) MMATorch.com]

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