Rashad Evans vs Lyoto Machida officially on

UFC President Dana White confirmed yesterday that Lyoto Machida will fight Rashad Evans for the light heavyweight title at UFC 98 on May 23. Rashad was supposed to fight Quinton "Rampage" Jackson, but Dana White said Jackson needs jaw surgery and wouldn't be ready for UFC 98.

I'm glad Lyoto Machida is finally getting a title shot, but it shouldn't have taken Rampage having to get jaw surgery for it to happen. Despite Machida's destruction of Thiago Silva, there are still a lot of haters who find him to be boring. I don't fall into that camp, so I'm just hoping he manages to beat Rashad in exciting enough fashion to win some people over. Machida doesn't get the respect he deserves by the UFC or by the MMA fans, but hopefully a light heavyweight title can change all that. And, if not, he can always resort to plan B: weeping in the corner while crying out, "Why won't they love me?!" Which, actually, doesn't sound like a very good plan.