Pound For Pound: Lyoto "The Dragon" Machida.

This is a thread and post made by a Machida Fan(JJKID). Thought I'd share his well thought out break down.
Today's fighter is my personal favourite, but let that be no reflection on my analysis. I promise to be as objective as possible, although this is a sort of highlight thread. Let's move on to our fighter, Lyoto Machida!

Specs:

Machida stands 6'1'' with a 74" reach. Lyoto has a Southpaw stance, and fights in the UFC Light Heavyweight Division, with a Pro record of 17-2. He is 32 years old. 

Credentials:

Machida has a Third Dan black belt in [Machida] Shotokan Karate as well as a black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, he has trained Sumo in the past as well. Machida also trains Akido under Steven Seagal, and tributes him in his win over Randy Couture.

Machida has held the following Title and Accolades:
UFC Light Heavyweight Champion (He had a single defense before suffering a knock out loss to Shogun Rua)
2009 Fighter of the Year from Black Belt Magazine
3 UFC Knockout of the Night Awards

Background and Style:

Lyoto Machida trains at the Blackhouse Gym in Brazil with UFC Champs, José Aldo, Anderson Silva, and the Noguiera brothers. Lyoto is the first fighter in MMA to be universally successful using Karate as a primary discipline. Machida is a very elusive fighter, many things attribute to this elusiveness, including footwork, stance, and agility. 
Lyoto starts his fights very tentative, he feels his opponent out, circles, and mirrors his opponents movements. He draws his opponent into his game by allowing them to move, he doesn't cut the octagon off like most fighters. Machida moves with his opponent, at his own range, he rarely lets his opponents get close to him, he does this by using fast kicks to the legs and body at full range. When his opponent moves to strike, he moves away and lands a fast counter, he does this throughout the fight. 
Lyoto's counter strikes are very explosive and often catch opponents off guard, and off balance. Machida is a master at knocking his opponent on their back, this is displayed in his fights against Sokoudjou, Ortiz, Thiago Silva, and Rashad Evans. He waits for his opponents to move in, then hits them with multiple straight punches, from here he does one of three things: If his opponent moves back, he throws a kick, usually to the body, if his opponent tries to block the punches, he will clinch and attempt a foot sweep. If his opponent tries to counter his strikes, Machida swiftly moves out of range.
For most fighters, this style would be widely ineffective, as they can't move the way Machida does. Lyoto springs in and out, using his wide Karate base to its full effect. With his wide base, it allows him to move a longer distance by using only his front foot, he leans back a bit at the waist, making his head a hard target. Another thing he uses is his hand position, Machida holds his hands, one by his chin, on his opponents power side (in the pocket), and the other (his lead hand), outstretched slightly, to create distance. This extended hand is accentuated by his southpaw stance, usually resulting in both fighter's lead hands to be on the same side, creating even more distance.
His stance also helps in his ability to leap in and out of normal striking range. His likes to use a leaping rear knee to the liver very often, he scored a knockdown over Tito Ortiz in the third round of their bout with this technique. Lyoto throws many feints to make these leaping attacks unpredictable. For every strike, Machida probably throws 3 feints to gauge his opponent's reaction, once he makes them flinch, he jumps in with an attack shortly after. Being unpredictable is one of the many things Lyoto does very well. 
Part of his unpredictability is the foot sweeps touched on earlier, they can come at any time, very quickly. If Machida sees your feet too close together, he will quickly step to a clinch position while getting one foot on the outside of your rear foot, then push you to the ground. He did this on multiple occasion in the Thiago Silva fight, as well as a very impressive one in the first round of his fight with Tito Ortiz. Once his opponent is on the ground, Machida has a very impressive top control.
Machida has been able to control Sokoudjou, Oritz, and Thiago Silva from top position. It should be noted that Machida has trouble holding opponents down who are skilled at acquiring underhooks from guard, and Hip escapes from mount, this is shown in his second fight with Shogun, and his fight with Silva. Lyoto is very good at getting to half guard, and passing guard from there. His submission attempts usually come from top position and consist mainly of chokes, such as the trapped arm choke (Arm triangle) that he caught Sokoudjou in. Machida has shown his ability to attack from guard as well, witnessed in his fight with Rampage, where he had Rampage in a triangle choke, before wisely letting go, rather than risk being slammed.
Lyoto is very good with his ground and pound as well, he knocked out Thiago Silva by jumping into his guard with a hammer fist and a quick GnP combo. He acquired the mounted crucifix at the end of his first round with Tito, and landed multiple shots from there, showing his explosiveness and versatility. Machida also has good ground and pound defense, although we don't get to see it very often. 
Lyoto's take down defense is legendary, he spins out take downs, tossing his opponents aside. He stuffed every one of Rua's take downs, as well as Rashad Evans'. Randy Couture couldn't get a hold of him, and Rampage was only able to muster a single take down. Machida's defense can be attributed to his sumo experience. In sumo, momentum is used to push you opponent out of a ring, or throw them to the mat. Machida uses the techniques of Sumo to use the momentum of his opponent's shot against them, to toss them spiraling away from him. 
Machida has the perfect balance of elusiveness, aggression, stand-up, and grappling, all put together with a technical brilliance that puts most pro fighters to shame. This man was born to be a champion, he has been training martial arts since he was very young, under his father Yoshiza, a Japanese Karate Master, to whom Lyoto credits his style. 
The tools to beating Machida have already been shown, wrestlers have has little success, and so have counter strikers, and brawlers. To defeat Machida, you need to be an agressive, technical striker, who won't get caught with their hands down. Obviously Shogun can, and has beaten Machida, and Rampage took him to a decision and eked out a win. Other fighters I think would give Machida problems are Vitor Belfort, with his quick and explosive hands, and Jon Jones, with his inhuman reach advantage as well as his Greco Roman wrestling skills. The latter of which is a far more intriguing match up, that I would love to see. 
Closing Thoughts:

Machida is one of the most technically brilliant fighters to ever step into the UFC octagon, with a great killer instinct. He has recently returned to his winning ways with a third knock out of the night performance over Randy Couture. It will be interesting to see if he will ever regain the belt he lost to Shogun, or will the current champ be a thorn in his side?
What was once a "boring" stick and move decision machine has become more comfortable and is now an exciting Knock out artist, former UFC Champion, and current top 10 Pound for Pound fighter. 



Personal Thoughts:

Machida is my favourite fighter, he has been for years. The fight that really got my attention was his fight with Sokoudjou, I was amazed at how he effortlessly evaded damage, then exploded to a trip, and eventually work to a choke. This technical brilliance continued to impress me through his fight with Tito. I then caught a replay of his fight with BJ Penn on Fight TV, and was amazed again. I can't help but to like the guy, he rarely gets hit, he has a BJJ Black belt, and he trains at Blackhouse (The house of Champions), as well as three highlight reel knockouts in recent years (The KO's of Rashad and Randy are legendary, and some of the most spectacular knockouts in UFC history). I will always be a fan of Machida, and even wore his walkout tee from UFC 104 the day after his knockout loss to Shogun, just to show I didn't care about him losing, I am always a fan. Anybody can stick with a fighter while their undefeated, but after they lose, people lose perspective. 
BodyModifiers Thoughts: I am going to sleep but I'm going to put my personal thoughts into this thread later today. Hope you enjoy this objective post JJKID made. 

I still think he's top 10 P4P, Shogun just had his number, and he was too tentative with Rampage.

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I am a huuuuge Machida fan. I have him in my top 10 p4p list as well. I don't think he'll reclaim the belt, but he is still my favorite fighter. WAR MACHIDA!!!!

I chose machida for my fantasy team so hed better win his next 2 fights.

Machida is a good fighter... not real sure where he should be among the P4P guys.

I like Machida, and find him pretty entertaining to watch.  It's nice to see a unique style that steps away from the cookie cutter wrestling, muay thai, bjj combination.  This was a nice breakdown for him.  Thanks for sharing.