Lyoto Machida

Lyoto Carvalho Machida (町田龍太) is a Brazilian professional mixed martial artist and karateka.

He formerly competed for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), where he was a former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion, as well as a UFC Middleweight Championship title challenger.

He most recently competed in Bellator MMA in the Light Heavyweight and Middleweight divisions.

Lyoto was born in Salvador, Bahia state, as the third son of Shotokan karate master Yoshizo Machida (町田嘉三), the highly ranked head of the Brazilian branch of the Japan Karate Association.

Yoshizo moved to Brazil from Ibaraki Prefecture in Japan when he was 22 years old, where he met and married Lyoto's Brazilian mother, Ana Cláudia.

In Japanese, Lyoto's name (龍太) is read as "Ryūta" (or "Lyūta" – Japanese language does not differentiate the letters "L" and "R").

However, his mother opposed it, as names ending in "a" are generally feminine in Portuguese.

Because of that, they decided to name him Lyoto, with the masculine ending "o".

Growing up in Belém, Lyoto began training in karate at the age of 3 and earned his black belt at the age of 13.

He also began training in sumo wrestling at the age of 8, and then BJJ and boxing at 16.

He was the runner-up in the 2000 Brazilian Sumo Championships in the 115 kg division.

As an adult, he became Brazilian Champion twice, and placed second in the South American Championship.

He defeated American fighter and jiu-jitsu black belt Rafael Lovato Jr.. at L.A. Sub X.

In addition to his sumo and karate achievements, he has a college degree in Physical Education.

He won a number of amateur karate tournaments, including the 2001 Pan American Karate tournament.

Later he travelled to Thailand to study Muay Thai, to Japan to study grappling at the New Japan Pro-Wrestling Dojo and finally to United States to pursue his UFC career.

Machida trained at the New Japan Pro-Wrestling L.A. Dojo for six months in 2003 where he lived with future WWE wrestlers Shinsuke Nakamura and Bryan Danielson.

Machida began his career in mixed martial arts under the management of legendary professional wrestler and MMA pioneer Antonio Inoki in Japan.

On 2 May 2003, he defeated Kengo Watanabe by decision in his professional debut on a card promoted by New Japan Pro-Wrestling in Tokyo.

During this time he competed under the name of Lyoto, written in all caps.

He was discussed by Inoki as a symbolic "successor" figure for himself, as Naoya Ogawa and Kazuyuki Fujita had been in the past.

In his second fight, he defeated future UFC Hall of Famer Stephan Bonnar by technical knockout due to a cut in the inaugural event promoted by Jungle Fight in Manaus, Brazil.

This was Bonnar's first professional loss.

On 31 December 2003, he took part in Inoki's annual event Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye 2003, where he fought future UFC Middleweight Champion Rich Franklin in a catchweight bout in which both men weighed in at 214 lb (97 kg).

In front of over 40,000 fans at Kobe Wing Stadium, Machida defeated Franklin via TKO in the second round.

He staggered Franklin with a counter left punch and knocked him down with a front kick to the face, finishing up with punches which forced the referee to stop the fight.

This was Franklin's first professional defeat.

Following this, Machida went on to compete for the K-1 promotion, where he beat kickboxers Michael McDonald (by submission) and Sam Greco (by split decision) under MMA rules.

When K-1 began promoting Hero's, a series of fight cards featuring only MMA bouts rather than cards mixed with kickboxing matches, Machida was transferred there.

He took on former UFC Welterweight Champion B.J. Penn on 26 March 2005, in Saitama at Hero's 1 in an openweight match.

Machida weighed in at 225 lb while Penn weighed in at 191 lb. Machida won by unanimous decision.

Machida made his UFC debut on the preliminary card of UFC 67 against Sam Hoger and won by unanimous decision.

He was expected to fight Forrest Griffin at UFC 70, but Griffin was out due to a staph infection and was replaced by undefeated David Heath, whom Machida beat by unanimous decision.

He next faced judo practitioner and Pride Fighting Championship veteran Kazuhiro Nakamura at UFC 76.

Machida won by unanimous decision and Nakamura would later test positive for marijuana.

At UFC 79, Machida faced Sokoudjou, a judo practitioner making his UFC debut after back-to-back upset knockout victories over Pride veterans Antônio Rogério Nogueira and Ricardo Arona.

Machida submitted Sokoudjou with an arm triangle choke at 4:20 of the second round.

Machida's next fight was at UFC 84 against former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Tito Ortiz, in what was thought to be Ortiz's final UFC appearance after a dispute with UFC President Dana White.

Machida frustrated Ortiz with lateral movement and counterstriking while successfully defending against the former champion's takedowns.

In the closing minutes of the third round Machida knocked Ortiz down with a knee to the body.