Machida: Distance and technique will beat Weidman
Lyoto Machida: “Distance and technique. It frustrates a lot of the wrestlers… my style and my strategy is to keep my distance, to use my distance well and to attack.”
Wrestling is the best base for MMA. The UFC champions at heavyweight, light heavyweight, middleweight, and welterweight are all former All American wrestlers. However, if there is a fighter who can be said to have discovered a solution for beating wrestling-based fighters, it is Lyoto Machida. “The Dragon” has beaten some of the strongest wrestlers in the sport, including Dan Henderson, Randy Couture, Rashad Evans, Mark Munoz, and Ryan Bader.
How does he do it?
“Distance and technique,” explained Machida through a translator, as transcribed by Dave Doyle for MMAFighting. “It frustrates a lot of the wrestlers because they focus a lot of the time to get their hands on him and to try to get close and to try to take them down, but my style and my strategy is to keep my distance, to use my distance well and to attack.”
“Chris Weidman is a tough guy, he’s well rounded. He’s known for being a wrestler, he’s very good on the ground, he can knock people out standing up. But I’m not too worried about Chris Weidman’s strong points. I’m focused on what I do well and that’s what I’ll focus on when I’m in the Octagon.”
Machida, who did not have cut weight for the 205 division, avoided 185 as the reigning champion was his Black House teammate Anderson Silva. When Weidman beat Silva, twice, the doors opened. But Machida is not awed by Weidman’s wins.
“It’s hard to base everything off those fights,” said Machida. “Every fight is a little bit different. There was a lot of controversy. I’m not taking anything away from Chris, but the controversy on how he won the second fight, he got hurt. But nothing away from Chris, I respect Chris Weidman and I’m going to try to get that belt.”
If Machida, a former UFC light heavyweight champion, beats UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman at UFC 175 on Saturday, he will become just the third fighter in the league’s history to win titles in two weight divisions.
The other two are Randy Couture and BJ Penn. And Machida holds wins over both of them.