Machida: ‘I wanted to end the fight quickly?’
Tatame: What do you think went wrong with your strategy? Lyoto Machida: I think Shogun’s strategy fit just fine for that moment, but…
Tatame: What do you think went wrong with your strategy?
Lyoto Machida: I think Shogun’s strategy fit just fine for that moment, but I was well trained. People sometimes try to find a reason, but for me there’s no excuse. I was well trained, focused, dedicated myself for months to do this fight and unfortunately it didn’t come out the way wanted to. There’s no excuse, it was his day, he was better than me on that night.
Tatame: Do you think your mistake was that you went forward and maybe you should have played on the counterattack?
Lyoto Machida: No… I’ve watched the fight a few times and I can say I followed my strategy, but Shogun came forward and maybe he tried it harder than me, since he was the challenger. I also wanted to end the fight quickly. I did never expose myself on an ungracious way, but it’s a fight and his punch got me. On that moment he was better, but it’s ok. The most important thing is how I’m feeling now, prepared, motivated and band new for new challenges.
Tatame: How do you think it would be like, today, a rematch of Shogun and Rampage?
Lyoto Machida: I think Rampage will be a very hard opponent to Shogun, it will be a tough rematch, for sure, but I can’t tell. Even because Rampage got off the trainings due to some appointments he had on the movies, so let’s see how he behaves on this fight and then we can do some thinking about it.