Lyoto Machida doesn't want to fight Anderson Silva, but admits they might have to eventually talk about it

By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

"Separating your profession from friendship is very difficult. In Mark's case, he thinks like me. We fought and went out to dinner afterwards, without any issues. We have the same goals, but only one of us can occupy that space at a time. We fought because we had an agreement: to fight and then congratulate whoever won. If one of us had not agreed to that, the fought would not have happened.

I don't want this fight [with Anderson Silva]. We're close, and we have the same manager. He's fighting for the belt, and I'm still far from it. It's hard to talk about it now. I don't know if we will cross paths one day. Let's let things happen and decide what to do. You have to be prepared to face to situation. You have to talk about it."

-Lyoto Machida talks to Sherdog.com about separating fighting and friendship as he did against Mark Munoz and the necessity of at least considering a future fight with Anderson Silva.

Penick's Analysis: This is one of those that might happen with the title on the line, but it will take both of them being OK with it. I don't know that Anderson Silva would be at this stage, but he also might not be the Champion anyway. He still has to take that belt back from Weidman next month. However, if Silva wins that fight, and Machida defeats Gegard Mousasi next February, they'll potentially be close to a matchup. It's probably a conversation they're going to have to have at some point, but neither is eager to go there just yet.

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

Source: http://www.mmatorch.com/artman2/publish/UFC_2/article_19319.shtml

Dean Amasinger Jimmy Ambrir Matt Andersen Alex Andrade