Here's a good article on Machida that I found on UFC.com..
The Machida Chronicles – Part I – A Father’s Lessons By Thomas Gerbasi
5:30 AM. An ungodly hour for most, even for Lyoto Machida. But without fail he rises, like he has for almost 30 years, and he faces the man who will always be his toughest opponent: his teacher, his hero, his father – Yoshizo.
Lesson number one – Discipline.
“I believe that without discipline there is no result,” said Lyoto. “That's why for an athlete to get results he needs to stop doing certain things. Waking up early to train karate with my father is the most difficult, 5:30 am. My father schedules this time to make it difficult.”
Since the age of three, Machida has been schooled in Shotokan Karate, the art which his father mastered. Young Lyoto was a quick study in Karate, and despite his subsequent success in mixed martial arts, he kept it as a core foundation of his fight game, making him a rarity in a sport where wrestling, jiu-jitsu, Muay Thai, and western boxing have become the accepted focus areas.
And strangely enough, while hardcore aficionados scoff at using Karate as a base in mixed martial arts, thanks in part to the assumption that the art has launched countless strip mall ‘masters’ and eight-year old Black Belts, Machida’s Karate has led him to 12 wins without a loss in MMA and to a featured slot in May 24th’s UFC 84 show against former light heavyweight champion Tito Ortiz. And considering that the names BJ Penn, Rich Franklin, Stephan Bonnar, and Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou dot his record, it’s safe to say that Machida must be doing something right.
Just ask a previous opponent like David Heath, who, before his UFC 70 fight with Machida in 2007, knew that figuring out the southpaw was going to be difficult.
“Machida has a really complex style and that’s gonna take a lot of work to get past some of the stuff that he does and make it the type of fight that I want it to be,” said Heath, who went on to lose a shutout three round decision in a fight that may not have been aesthetically pleasing, but which revealed the type of Rubik’s Cube Machida’s style is to decipher.
“The difficult style of fighting I have was achieved by all the karate training I have done through my whole life, and for all that my father has taught me,” said Machida, whose discipline in the Octagon is aided by the voice of his father.
Another important lesson: never give up on my objectives.
When you watch Machida fight, there in no emotion on his face, no look of panic when in trouble or fire in his eyes when he has an opponent in trouble. This is a competition, a fight to be won, yet whatever it takes to achieve victory, Machida is willing to do. If it means going on the attack immediately, he will do that. If it means sitting back in the pocket and waiting for his foe to make a mistake, he will, no matter how long it takes.
And inevitably he will win, whether by sheer technique or by the blunt force of his left hand counter, a punch that is delivered with the speed and accuracy epitomized by southpaw boxing superstar Manny Pacquiao. Again, it’s Karate at work here, with decades of tedious drilling finally paying off. It was never an option for Machida when he was growing up in Belem, and as he saw his friends doing things every kid and teenager did, Yoshizo had him working.
“I believe that I've gotten to this point in my career because I always wanted this very much,” said Lyoto. “I
train and have trained a lot, always. I do many repetitions, many hours of training. While my friends were out playing and at parties, I was training.”
Now, as he and his wife expect their own child, he understands what his father was doing for him as he prepared him for competition and for life, with lessons which have been seared into his mind, body, and soul. Not that it was easy, despite his spotless MMA record and status as one of the sport’s rising stars. First there was the transition from fighting in competitions to fighting for real.
“The main adjustment for me was adapting competition karate to fighting karate,” he said. “There is a big difference. In competition you control the move, you don't use knees, and I competed for a long time. When I first got into MMA it was difficult at first because I wanted to control each move unconsciously.”
Today though, he has adapted his karate into a well-rounded MMA game, and when he competes, he does so with a quiet confidence. He won’t engage in trash-talk with opponents and is not one for outlandish predictions.
My father taught me to respect my opponents, to never think they are weak.
That means every opponent, whether a former champion like Ortiz or a no-name prelim kid, will be trained for with the same unwavering intensity. At this point, losing is not an option for Machida, who has come too far to lose now. But perhaps even more important to him than winning is making his father proud.
“My father respects my career, enjoys watching my fights and always finds flaws in them,” he said. “For him, it's never good enough, which is great for me because I always want to get better.”
So at 5:30 am tomorrow, Lyoto Machida will rise again.
This is parts 2 UFC® : Ultimate Fighting Championship® and 3 UFC® : Ultimate Fighting Championship® to the Machida chronicles on UFC.com as they wouldn't fit in the post.
