On the other side of the coin of the upcoming UFC light heavyweight championship bout, current challenger Lyoto ‘The Dragon’ Machida (17-2) looks to regain his title this Saturday when he faces title holder Jon Jones at UFC 140.
Machida’s camp has been busy preparing ‘The Dragon’ for this fight, knowing that Jones possesses a myriad of “surprises” for his opponents with this fight on December 10th likely being no different.
In an interview with Tatame.com, the challengers brother, Chinzo Machida, talked about Lyoto’s training camp bringing in such fighters Muhammed ‘King Mo’ Lawal and Anderson Silva to help with the preparations.
Elbows can always catch fighters by surprise, but Jon Jones always uses them. Lyoto plays with the distance and there’re many people who point him out as the one to beat Jones. What did you do in terms of strategy?
We’ve been training not these aspects, but all aspects: the stand-up, the takedowns, both on the defensive and offensive parts, and on the ground. It was a global work. We know the dangers of the elbows, of everything. We’ve been studying a lot, watching the videos. Let’s see the result of our training when the time comes.Is it good for Lyoto that Jon Jones really goes for it and he rather working on the counterattack?
I guess it helps him a lot, but we don’t get stuck on that. If Jon Jones makes a mistake, Lyoto will strike too. He’s prepared for all situations.You brought King Mo to help out on the trainings. Lyoto’s very good on the takedowns, but Jon Jones is an expert. Was this help of King Mo mostly on the offensive takedowns?
The main idea is to do the best thing for the moment, you know? If Lyoto has a chance, he won’t miss the chance to take Jon Jones down. But Lyoto’s intention is to do what he’s always done. The fight’s not only about wrestling, but also the stand-up and the ground game. MMA is a mix, so we brought an outside sparring, to get him prepared the best possible way for anything that happens when he’s there.
The two headline this Saturday’s UFC 140 event at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Ontario.