On Tuesday afternoon, UFC president Dana White told MMAWeekly a light heavyweight scrap between former champ Lyoto Machida (Pictured) and Phil Davis would headline UFC 140. Less than an hour later, White recalled Davis is still rehabbing his surgically-repaired knee.
“I jumped the gun on Machida vs Davis. Just found out Davis is still recovering from knee surgery. Sorry about that!” White tweeted just moments ago.
#Oopsie
Davis owns an unblemished 9-0 resume and hung a lopsided unanimous decision win over Antonio Rogerio Nogueira this past March. “Mr. Wonderful” was slated to face Rashad Evans at UFC 133, but was forced out when he hurt his leg at the 11th hour.
Speaking of the company’s August show in Pennsylvania, Machida was subsequently offered the opportunity to headline opposite Evans. The Brazilian reportedly accepted the contest only to turn around and request “Anderson Silva money” to fight in Philly. Tito Ortiz eventually played substitute and went on to lose to Evans.
Machida holds an impressive 17-2 professional record and was last seen retiring Randy Couture with a Steven Seagal-inspired front kick at UFC 129 in April.
White said over the weekend that the heavyweight rematch between Frank Mir and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira would not serve as the featured attraction for the Octagon’s return to Toronto.
UFC 140 takes place December 10th inside the Air Canada Centre in Canada.
Here is the card’s current roster:
Rich Attonito vs. Claude Patrick
John Cholish vs. Mitch Clarke
Dennis Hallman and John Makdessi
Nik Lentz vs Mark Bocek
Krzysztof Soszynski vs. Igor Pokrajac
Chan Sung “The Korean Zombie” Jung vs. Mark Hominick
Brian Ebersole vs. Rory MacDonald
Tito Ortiz vs. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira
Frank Mir vs. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira