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Jones snubs Machida rematch

Lyoto Machida lost to Jon Jones last year © Getty Images

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UFC light-heavyweight champion Jon Jones told ESPN.com on Friday that he does not want to have a rematch with Lyoto Machida.

Jones is scheduled to make the fourth defence of his title on September 1 against Dan Henderson at UFC 151 in Las Vegas.

UFC president Dana White stated earlier this month that Machida would face the Jones-Henderson winner. White made the announcement after Machida registered a second-round knockout of Ryan Bader on August 4 in Los Angeles.

"I don't want to fight Lyoto Machida," Jones said. "He was my lowest pay-per-view draw of last year.

"No one wants to see me fight Lyoto Machida. I don't want to fight Lyoto again. Lyoto is high risk and low reward. He's a tough fighter, but no one wants to buy that fight.

"Between [Mauricio] Shogun [Rua], [Quinton] Rampage [Jackson] and Rashad [Evans], Lyoto was my lowest draw. Why would I want to fight someone where it's a lose-lose situation? I won't make money on it. And he's a tricky fighter."

Jones (16-1) submitted Machida on December 10, 2011, with a second-round standing guillotine.

When asked if he will agree to fight Machida again if asked by UFC officials to do so, Jones was non-committal. "I don't even know," Jones said. "I don't know how to answer that right now."

Before Jones opened up about facing Machida for a second time, he strongly emphasised his attention is squarely on Henderson.

"I don't think it's appropriate to be talking about fighting anybody but Dan Henderson," Jones said. "I'm clearly focused on Dan Henderson. I'm not overlooking Dan."

This article originally appeared on ESPN.com

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