Lyoto Machida

Lyoto Machida in 2008

Lyoto Machida (* May 30, 1978 in Salvador da Bahia) is a Brazilian mixed martial arts fighter.

Machida was born in Brazil, the son of a Japanese Brazilian, who was karate instructor. Machidas mainly exerted martial arts is karate, in addition, he is a master of Brazilian Jiu -Jitsu, Judo and Sumo.

His MMA debut had Machida on 2 May 2003 in an event of the Promoter New Japan Pro Wrestling in Tokyo, where he defeated his opponent Kengo Watanabe. After a win over Stephan Bonnar at Jungle Fight 1 on 13 September 2003 in Manaus, he added Inoki Bom -Ba- on Ye Festival 2003 later UFC Middleweight Champion Rich Franklin his first defeat. After Machida met three times in the K -1, where he defeated Michael McDonald, Sam Greco and on 26 March 2005 in Saitama BJ Penn. After victories in the Jungle Fight and against Vernon White in the World Fighting Alliance, Lyoto Machida was on February 3, 2007 at the UFC 67 his successful debut in the Ultimate Fighting Championship. After three more wins in the UFC, including against Kazuhiro Nakamura, he fought on May 24, 2008 at the UFC 84 victory against Tito Ortiz. In the next fight, against Thiago Silva at UFC 94 on January 31, 2009, his victory for Knockout of the Night was awarded. Then he went to the UFC 98 Title fight for the light heavyweight title against Rashad Evans on May 23, 2009. He defeated Evans and was the title on October 24 at UFC 104 against Mauricio Rua defend initially, but in the rematch on 8 May 2010 at UFC 113 Machida defeated Rua, however, and thus had to cope with his first MMA defeat. In his next fight at UFC 123 on November 21, 2010 he lost to Quinton Jackson just on points. On April 30, 2011 Machida defeated Randy Couture at UFC 129 in the second round by KO, which then announced his sports retreat. In December 2011, Machida was defeated by Jon Jones with a guillotine choke in the second round.