Lyoto Machida believes Jackson perfect opponent

by John Morgan on Nov 16, 2010 at 5:00 pm ET

Hardly lacking the necessary physical and mental preparation needed to enter a fight, former UFC light heavyweight champion Lyoto Machida (16-1 MMA, 8-1 UFC) has spent his entire life training in martial arts.

That said, hand-to-hand combat is never anything to take lightly.

"The reality is, there's pressure every time you step into a fight," Machida told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) through an interpreter. "Regardless of what stage of your career you're in, there's always pressure."

However, Machida says the pressure will be different when he walks to the cage for this Saturday night's UFC 123 main-event contest with Quinton "Rampage" Jackson (30-8 MMA, 5-2 UFC). No longer undefeated, no longer a champion after being knocked out by Mauricio "Shogun" Rua this past May, Machida said he believes a weight has been lifted from his shoulders.

"Part of this game is that you win some and you lose some," Machida said. "(But) I felt that there was a lot of pressure on my back because many of the fans had this aura of me being the undefeated champion.

"I knew one day I could lose like everyone else. Now I feel like I've learned a lot from that loss and it's taken a lot of pressure off my back."

Of course, with any loss comes an entirely different type of pressure. Even as a former champion, consecutive losses in the UFC, particularly in the promotion's stacked 205-pound division, mean a long path back to the top.

Machida said he understands what's at stake, but he feels it's no more than any other trip to the cage.

"The reality is there's pressure every time you step into a fight," Machida said. "Regardless of what stage of your career, there's always pressure.

"I feel like this time is not any different. It's a normal fight."

However, "normal" may not provide quite enough context to the matchup. The former light heavyweight champions may very well be facing off for a shot to at the winner of a 2011 title fight between Rua and another former champ, Rashad Evans.

Jackson insists he's been able to refocus after his role as B.A. Baracus on a feature-film version of "The A-Team" and promised a vintage PRIDE-era performance. And "Rampage" has, as usual, upped the ante in the matchup by dabbling in a bit of trashtalk – calling Machida's karate style "too boring to promote."

Of course, the stoic Machida refuses to engage in such banter and said he won't let Jackson bait him out of his normal approach.

"Everyone has their own opinion; that's someone's opinion," Machida said. "But my style made me a champion. Everybody's got to keep to the style that makes them feel comfortable in the ring."

Machida spent some time training at California's famed American Kickboxing Academy in an effort to tighten up his wrestling, though he says the majority of his preparation for Jackson was done in Brazil.

And while Machida's bandwagon emptied rapidly after his knockout loss to Rua, "The Dragon" believes Jackson provides the perfect opportunity to get back on track.

"It's a great matchup of styles," Machida said. "'Rampage' is known to be aggressive, and I like to stand up. Put those two styles together, and it's a good match."


http://mmajunkie.com/news/21428/added-pressure-gone-machida-believes-jackson-provides-perfect-foe-at-ufc-123.mma
Last edited by JynX at 2010-11-18 21:51:29