Lyoto Machida and Rogerio Nogueira Don't Want To Fight and Dozens Are Outraged

Unless you're really paying attention to MMA, there are really only four or five story lines that keep on getting recycled over and over again.

If nobody is accusing someone of testing positive for steroids, and nobody is facing legal problems, most of our articles tend to center around issues of who deserves what title shot, and how "so and so" fits into the pound-for-pound rankings.

With so little real subject matter, if we find an issue that is even the slightest bit interesting, we grab on to it, and keep on talking about it for months on end, until everybody reading just wants to vomit.

When somebody sends us email messages about their vomiting experience, we know that we've done our job to satisfaction.

Jake Rossen did a great job today , when he once again brought up the oft-recycled story of fighters not wanting to fight other fighters from the same training camp.

In this particular instance, he expressed his own outrage at Machida's statements that he would prefer not to fight his teammate Rogerio Nogueira, despite the fact that this is really just recycled news.

Dozens of other people were also outraged, considering the current hype surrounding such a possible matchup.

Despite that Nogueira has really only defeated one currently elite fighter since his brutal knockout loss to Rameau Sokoudjou, it's clear that there are no other significant challenges for the Brazilian.

It's not like anybody wants to see a rematch of Noguiera's 2005 fight with Mauricio Rua, which was seen by many as the fight of the year. No, who wants that?

Rossen is really on to something when he suggests that maybe Nogueira should excuse himself from the division.

Meanwhile, it's not like there are any other challengers currently being lined up for Machida, if we can safely assume that he decisively defeats Shogun in the rematch. We can assume that, based on the last fight, right?

It's not like Rampage Jackson and Rashad Evans will be fighting each other for a chance at the belt, right?  And it's not like there's really any interest in that Jon Jones fellow.

Admittedly, there are a lot of people that want to see Machida fight against his good friend, Anderson Silva, but even then, that fight depends on a lot of factors.

For one thing, Silva still needs to get through Vitor Belfort, and probably Nate Marquardt first.  And if Machida loses to Rua, the focus will immediately turn toward a Silva vs. Rua matchup.

But let's forget about the obstacles in between our dream scenario, because it is so obvious that Machida and Silva will eventually stand alone atop the 205-pound division.

It's not like there have ever been any upsets in MMA.

As such, let's forget all of the other challengers, and matches that are going on, and tunnel-vision this entire thing until all we see is Machida vs. Silva, and why it's not happening today.

If we look at it this way, it's easy to see why Jake Rossen suggests that the UFC threaten Machida and Nogueira to force them to fight.

Of course, he's got plenty of reason to be outraged, because what we're talking about is no less than "the sanctity of the sport."  Clearly, a refusal to fight within teams would mar the pristine perfection that is MMA.

Well, I've gotta say that I'm really starting to come around about this Jake Rossen guy. 

For a guy who was so content with Fedor Emelinanenko's decision to sign with Strikeforce, which went against the most-desired matchup in the heavyweight division at the time, he's really started to take the sanctity of the sport seriously, now that there are, as we've concluded, dozens of people clamoring for an immediate fight between Nogueira and Machida.