Post-fight highlights from UFC 98

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Maybe Lyoto Machida will be the one to put together a lengthy winning streak as light-heavyweight champion, but it is notable to mention that his predecessors are 1-3 in title defenses. Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson was upset by Forrest Griffin after one successful title defense and Griffin and the challenger who beat him, Rashad Evans, have both been knocked off in their first title defense.

‘This kid [Machida] just needed to feel comfortable in the octagon, and I was just blown away by his performance tonight,’ UFC President Dana White said late Saturday at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

Machida knocked out Evans in the second round Saturday, detailing that the perfectly spotted left hand that first staggered Evans ‘was timed properly.’

While White speculated this could be the start of the ‘Machida era,’ something the UFC light-heavyweights haven’t had since Chuck Liddell surrendered his belt, Machida (15-0) added, ‘Now that I’m champion, the real work begins. It’s more responsibility.’

White, however, handed him a daunting next foe: Rampage Jackson, who has defeated Wanderlei Silva and Keith Jardine in his last two bouts.

Machida-Jackson could happen in the fall, and White announced Saturday that the UFC’s long-awaited return to Southern California wll come Oct. 24 at Staples Center.

There’s a chance that former welterweight champion Matt Hughes will be on that card, too. I spoke to Hughes, 35, about what it was like to know his fight against Matt Serra could’ve been his last in the octagon. He won, however, and is trying to thrust himself back in the title picture (for a potential third belt) against the winner of July’s Georges St-Pierre-Thiago Alves bout.

-- Lance Pugmire

Here is a picture gallery from UFC 98 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, including images from the Evans-Machido and Hughes-Serra bouts.