Looks like Rampage Jackson is going to need surgery on both his jaw and his forearm following his unanimous decision victory over Keith Jardine at UFC 96. He will  sit on the sidelines, get healed up and most likely take on the winner of Rashad Evans and Lyoto Machida later in the year for the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship.

Evans vs. Machida  is a very intriguing matchup simply based on the fact that both fighters are undefeated.  While Rashad is the faster of the two fighters, Machida is very elusive in the cage, often frustrating opposing fighters. In addition, Rashad is very small for the 205 division coming in at only 5 feet 11 inches.   Machida takes the slight advantage at 6 feet 1 inches, and also has the reach advantage.

I’m very interested to see which way Vegas makes the odds on this UFC 98 main event. If i was a betting man I go with Machida….I realize Rashad gets better as the fight goes on, as we saw in the Forrest Griffin fight, but Machida is a different animal. He showed great takedown defense against Tito Ortiz and dismantled Silva on their feet earlier this year.

As for UFC 100?  Maybe we’ll see Rampage enter the Octagon for one more non-title fight on July 11 if he’s given a chance to revenge his loss to former UFC Light Heavyweight champ Forrest Griffin.