Recovered from surgery to his hand, Lyoto Machida’s preparations are in full swing for his rematch with Mauricio Shogun, at the UFC 113 event to take place 8 May in Canada. From Belem, capital of the Brazilian state of Para, the karateka spoke with GRACIEMAG.com and explained a little about his preparations for the challenge, when he will put his UFC light heavyweight belt up for grabs again. Check out what the champion had to say:
Lyoto prepares for Shogun. Photo: Josh Hedges
How has your hand recovered?
I had surgery, but I was already back in training in December. I was only cleared to punch in late January and I’ve been hitting well for about a month now. I’m not feeling anything and my hand is good.
In the last fight, if just for your having come off back-to-back fights, you said you may have overdone it. How is your prep-work going now?
I’m very disciplined in training. I’ve been accompanied by a nutritionist, physical trainer, with my father helping me with technique and Walter Broca with my ground game. We’re doing all that to avoid stress, and not get overloaded.
But at what stage are you in your preparations?
Taking a good look at it, training started a long while back, because we worked on fundamentals in December and January. Now we are at the specific training part and closer to the fight we’ll take care of the strategic part of the fight. Now we are mainly working on fundamentals, covering everything so as not to get surprised and so I can respond wherever the fight may play out.
Will you do your final phase of training in Belem again?
Training will basically be all here. The overall context of the work we’re doing hasn’t changed much. You live and learn and we’re always improving. These days, training is all up to me. The only people involved are the ones I hired to train with me. It’s closed-door training.
But you won’t hook up with friends Minotauro and Anderson Silva to train together a bit?
I won’t discard the possibility of looking up Anderson, who is a good friend of mine, or Minotauro. But it is a bit tricky, because everyone has their own commitments. Anderson will fight now and Minotauro just fought, so I can’t say right now. I have to go out and do my own thing. Of course, I make the most of the tips they give me. When we meet, we’ll exchange a lot of information. That’s how I see it.
Check out a video of Machida’s highlights: