Lyoto the dragon Machida returns after being gone for over two years
Calm, powerful, technical, and interesting. These are the things I think of when describing Lyoto Machida.
A master of the art of Shotokan karate. A unique style that gave other fighters plenty of trouble throughout Machidas Career.
Machida first entered the UFC in 2007, and didn’t suffer his first lost till 2010. People consider those years the Machida era.
During those years he beat monsters like Sokoudjou, Tito Ortiz, Thiago Silva, Rashad Evans and Shogun Rua.
His fight against Rashad Evans for the UFC Light Heavyweight belt was a display of beautiful technique that ended in a brutal knockout.
His career has many highlights, But one major lowlight was the 18-month suspension Machida was given back in 2015 for using a USADA banned substance.
Machida admitted to using 7-keto-DHEA and claimed he didn’t know it was a banned substance and was only using it to reduce stress not performance enhancement.
Regardless if you feel the ban was justified or not, we will finally get to see the Dragon return to Sao Paulo Brazil this Saturday.
He will be facing off against Brawler Derrick Brunson. Brunson carries major power in both of his hands but can sometimes get wreckless.
This fight will be interesting because of Machida’s tendencies to counter strike and Brunson's will to push forward with wild and powerful strikes.
The only thing that worries me for Machida is his age. At the age of 39 how much has he slowed down, and will ring rust be a factor after being away from the sport for two years.
He took a lot of damage in both of his last two fights. Those fights were against former middleweight champ Luke Rockhold and, Yoel Romero both guys ranked #2, and #3 in the division, No slouches by any means, But it was still hard to watch Machida get dominated like that back to back.
I don't know if Machida can hang with the UFC middleweight top 5 anymore, but some answers will be made when he fights Brunson Saturday who is ranked #7.
How do you feel Machida will perform in this fight? Let me know! Also thank you very much for reading!