Despite a controversial split decision loss to Quinton “Rampage” Jackson last November at UFC 123, former light heavyweight champ Lyoto Machida (16-2) is looking forward, not back, at his upcoming opponent Randy Couture at UFC 129 in Toronto.
This according to Machida’s manager, Ed Soares, who spoke with MMAWeekly.com recently about his fighters upcoming match with the UFC Hall of Famer.
In the interview, Soares talks about the controversial split decision loss to Jackson, noting that mixed martial arts is still improving as a sport and mistakes will inevitably be made. One thing he is sure of though, is that Machida is focused soley on his upcoming fight with Couture on April 30 at the Rogers Centre in Toronto, Ontario.
“There’s gonna be adjustments that are gonna be made to try to perfect the scoring and make it better. We may see in our lifetime, maybe 20 years from now, they may say, ‘Man, off of today’s scoring, Lyoto would have definitely won that fight or such and such definitely would have won that fight.’ But it’s definitely a young sport and it’s constantly evolving. I think everybody is doing the best job they can to try and put these things in order.”
“I think it’s a great fight. It’s an honor to fight a guy like Randy Couture. He’s a legend in this sport. Someone like Lyoto, he’s the kind of guy that wants to fight the best. He did feel he won that fight against Rampage, but that’s yesterday, now he’s got to focus on today. The next bout is Randy Couture.”
Machida has lost two in a row and could face expulsion from the UFC should he suffer a third straight defeat at the hands of Couture. He lost to Jackson last November and suffered his first defeat in his rematch with Mauricio “Shogun” Rua at UFC 113 in May, losing the title to the fellow Brazilian.