Filed under: UFC
DETROIT — There is a saying that some people use in the MMA world that goes like this: If you’ve never lost, you’re not fighting the right people. For a time, Lyoto Machida seemed to turn that saying on its ear. He had fought BJ Penn and Tito Ortiz, Rashad Evans and Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, and yet a zero still followed the dash on his record.
After he captured the UFC light-heavyweight belt, more than a few declared it the “Lyoto Machida era,” sure that he would become a dominant champion with a lengthy reign. But it wasn’t long before the rematch with Rua proved what we already knew: that if you fight long enough, you will lose. You will have an off-day or someone will simply be better than you on one night.
But what happens next? What we’ve also learned in MMA is that how you rebound from losing is what ultimately defines you. Some guys fall apart, some are filled with self-doubt, and others simply re-double their efforts to ensure they will give themselves every chance to win in the future. At UFC 123, against Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, Machida will take that crucial step of stepping into a cage after rebuilding broken confidence.
When a UFC fighter goes on SportsCenter two days before his fight, he’s usually expected to try to sell the viewers on a fight that he guarantees is going to be a “brawl” or a “barn burner” or a “slugfest” or whatever other word you want to use to describe the kinds of fights that will make the casual MMA fan watching ESPN buy the pay-per-view.