Midnight Mania! Older, Wiser Machida Says Layoff Has Given Him Perspective: “life Is A Fight”
Bringing you the weird and wild from the world of MMA each and every weeknight. Lyoto Machida has returned from the wilderness with wisdom. He found himself facing an 18-month suspension for being honest with USADA about his use of what he said he didn't know was a banned substance. In his time away from the sport, he has stopped comparing himself to others, and focused on himself instead: "What can I do to improve? What can I do to enjoy life?"
Most of the things I've been learning throughout this year and these months that I've been out was outside the octagon," Machida told MMAjunkie today. "Our life is a fight. You have to face so many problems in your life. When something happens in your life, sometimes you don't know how to act or what to do. That happened with me as soon as the episode happened about the doping.
"At the beginning, I was very stressed. I was very emotionally affected. Then, a couple months later, I could move (past) everything. But it was difficult because I had to accept everything. When you don't accept everything, you're going to struggle over and over again."
This newfound acceptance didn't take away his love for fighting, however. He also said he missed every moment of fight week, and is grateful to be back. His perspective on his very long layoff?
"What I can say is, I'm more mature now. I have more experience. Everything just give more power."
He also talked about the specifics of facing Derek Brunson, a tough opponent but not the biggest name in the division:
My life is all about challenge. So I like to challenge myself, I like to pursue a dream. I have to have a reason to do something. I don't want to do something just to do something. So, when I decided to come back, I said to my manager, I would like to have a challenge. I would like to have something that push me so hard, in training, mentally, physically. So that's what happened. They chose Derek Brunson. I accept right away, I said, no problem. I want this. I know he's strong. But everyone's strong... that's the mindset you have to have. I don't want to, how you say, underestimate anybody. I wanna keep in my mind that he's the strongest guy that I'm gonna face.
Indeed, the 39-year-old Machida is currently an underdog to the 33-year-old Brunson.