It’s former UFC Middleweight Champion and GOAT (Greatest Of All Time) candidate Anderson Silva against former Light Heavyweight Champion Lyoto ‘the Dragon’ Machida in this friendly sparring footage.

The sparring starts out with stand up practice and both long-time friends and training partners are clearly taking it easy on each other, focusing on ‘technique’ sparring. Kicks are exchanged between the two and you can see differences in their stances, though both men come from traditional martial arts backgrounds.

Machida comes from a karate background which is evident in his wide stance while Anderson has a more Muay Thai type stance more often seen in today’s MMA.

The rest of the footage involves grappling sparring, both clinching up against the cage and grappling on the ground which are important aspects of MMA competition.

“>

ABOUT ANDERSON SILVA:

Anderson ‘The Spider’ Silva is the former long-time UFC Middleweight Champion and perhaps the greatest Mixed Martial Artist of all time. Though he predominantly employs a Muay Thai style attack in his fights he actually comes from a traditional martial arts background, beginning his training in Taekwondo and Capoeira.

He won the UFC title from Rich Franklin in 2006 and successfully defended his title a record of a ten times. He last competed in February of 2016 where he lost a close split-decision to Michael Bisping in a back and forth affair.

ABOUT LYOTO MACHIDA:

Lyoto ‘The Dragon’ Machida is the former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion of the world and currently fights in the UFC’s middleweight division where he is ranked seventh in the world.

Machida is best known for his extensive karate background which poses a lot of problems for his opponents. His style is very tricky and difficult to prepare for. There is zero wind up to his techniques which allows him to land more shots without telegraphing.

He holds notable wins over Rashad Evans, Dan Henderson, Randy Couture, Ryan Bader, Gegard Mousasi, Shogun Rua, and Tito Ortiz.