The UFC are currently in crisis mode after both headliner Jose Aldo and co-main event star Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson pulled out of their fights at UFC 153 in Rio next month.
That’s left them scrambling for replacements with a month to go until fight night, and in order to right the ship they really need to convince at least one major star to sign up.
Yesterday I mentioned Lyoto Machida as someone who could fit the bill, potentially sliding in as ‘Rampage’s’ replacement against Glover Teixeira as the new main event, and today the former champ told his Brazilian fans on twitter that he has a secret to share with them soon.
“We are preparing a big surprise for you!” Machida wrote.
Now his definition of ‘big surprise’ and ours might be completely different, but either way it’s certainly lead to increased speculation that he could be the man the UFC are targeting. Given that Machida’s never been a fan of short-notice fights in the past however it’d be wise to take this all with a pinch of salt for now.
Incidentally, Frankie Edgar has indicated that he’s also willing to stay on the card despite Aldo pulling out.
“If the UFC wants Frankie to fight anybody, he’ll fight anybody,” Edgar’s manager Ali Abdel-Aziz tells MMAjunkie.com. “It doesn’t matter. If they want him to fight on this card, he’ll fight on this card. If they want him to wait, he’ll wait.”
There’s not an obvious fight out there for him at 145lbs that could headline the show though, and Aldo has stated that he’d like to simply postpone his fight with Edgar rather than scrap it altogether.
Nevertheless, the UFC will probably be relieved to hear that Edgar isn’t about to pull a ‘Jon Jones’ on them and refuse to fight.
