Lyoto Machida: “Striking is like chess”

By Eduardo Ferreira

Photo Josh Hedges

For many and many years, the Brazilian fighters were defined as good grapplers and average strikers, but Anderson Silva and Ltoro Machida’s recent victories, besides Thiago Alves’ good fights, are changing this concept . UFC light heavyweight champion, Machida build his name under an unique karate style, and remembers that Brazil always had great fighters in the stand up fight.

“We always had great boxing champions, like Arcelino “Popó” Freitas, great karate and kickboxing fighters. We always had good stand up fighters, besides all the promotion we had around the jiu-jitsu, the sport that opened the doors to the fight world. We can’t forget that, before mine and Anderson’s conquest in the UFC, we already had great strikers in the UFC, like Marco Ruas, the  first one to do the cross training, Pedro Rizzo and Vitor Belfort”, analyzes Machida.

Striking always was defined as a lottery, once that one single punch can end the fight, but Lyoto guarantees this concept is not true anymore. “It just doesn’t make sense to me. Striking is like chess, where I put all my technique. Sometimes I make the guy walk for where I want, I make him attack me like I want to counter attack, sometimes I leave my leg open for him to kick and then I pull his leg and kick him”, explained the Dragon, in an exclusive interview to TATAME Magazine’s august edition.