LYOTO: INOKI AND THE DRAGON MACHIDA

Known As: Lyoto Machida, LYOTO, The Dragon
Height: 6 Feet 1 Inches
Weight: ~200-225lbs under Inoki, 185lbs now
Time Managed by Inoki: 2002-2006
Discipline(s): Shotokan/"Machida" Karate, Sumo, BJJ, Wrestling, Muay Thai
Signature Moves: Traditional Karate stuff like kicking you in the damn head
MMA Record: 6-0 under Inoki, 24-8 in the present day

Lyoto Machida was the only Inoki disciple that was only destined for MMA. While almost everyone else under his management and tutelage came from the world of pro-wrestling, Lyoto Machida was different. The son of the head of the Japanese Karate Association of Brazil, Machida excelled at not just Karate but also Sumo and BJJ. He went to NJPW and Inoki Dojo's to train in wrestling, creating a deadly mix of wrestling and BJJ, traditional karate striking, and sumo grappling that was perfect for Inoki's vision of a mixed fighter. Lyoto Machida was only billed as LYOTO (all caps are cool don't ya know) in this time under Inoki, and in many ways, he was on the path to achieving Inoki's dream of dominating the MMA world. Those hopes were dashed for many reasons (economic, political, criminal) but their time together produced some great fights and there is a history left that we should all examine.

LYOTO DEBUTS IN THE YEAR OF ULTIMATE CRUSH:
Ultimate Crush was a monuments  event, not only for its sheer length and production value, but also because we saw the debut of one of the greatest MMA fighters of all time: Lyoto Machida! Debuting to a crowd of tens of thousands to a full Japanese drum ensemble and decked in Brazilian native garb, LYOTO as he was billed in his Inokiism days is fighting Pancrase heavyweight Kengo Watanabe in an ULTIMATE CRUSH rules match (elbows, grounded knees, soccer kicks, and clotheslines are all explicitly allowed).

LYOTO very quickly uses his sumo and wrestling skills to force Watanabe into the corner at the beginning of round one. After hitting the ground, Machida vacillates between half guard and full mount while delivering ground and pound. Watanabe is able to sweep out and return to his feet but its back to the corner as LYOTO is relentless with his force. Wallid Ismail, friend of Inoki and founder of Jungle Fight, is in Machida's corner coaching. Round 2 begins as LYOTO lands a nice karate straight punch, clinches, and rushes Watanabe into the corner before the action grinds to halt because of a knee to the balls (ow). After all the refs get some back slaps of rejuvenation in, the action restarts with Machida clipping Watanabe with a head kick and using the corner to bring Watanabe back down for methodical ground and pound. It is cool seeing such a grappling focused Machida here as in later years I think most have known him for his highly technical stand up game, despite his own insistence on the fact that his style of Karate differs in that is traditional thus includes "the use of knees, elbows, takedowns, and even some submissions." Machida lands a killer spinning mid kick and finishes round two with some mounted ground and pound.

Round 3 is here and guess what? It is right back into the corner and to the ground with LYOTO in the dominant position. Watanabe is able to fight off a rear naked choke (surprising but I think Machida has that first fight nervousness here) and spins into top position. Machida is strong even from the bottom of the guard and neutralizes anything Watanabe had planned so the ref brings this back up. We see a bit of striking before LYOTO achieves a fantastic deep single leg takedown (the wrestling training from Inoki is obvious here) and is back on the hunt for a finish. He rides Watanabe as the final round ends desperately trying for a choke but in the end he wins by unanimous decision. LYOTO wins his debut at the Tokyo Dome and as expected receives a smack from Inoki, but this is a bit different that usual. Inoki attacks LYOTO with multiple slaps and openly frowns and sort of pushes him away. I assume Inoki wanted a cleaner win to this inaugural fight so he threw a bit of a fit exposing another, darker side of Inoki as someone who unfairly demands perfection out of his trainees.



BLOOD IN THE JUNGLE:
After his debut, Lyoto continued training over the summer and made the trip to the Amazon (yes literally deep in the Amazon Forest) for the inaugural (and as TOM mentioned "very peaceful") JUNGLE FIGHT. I talked fairly extensively in my last post about the origins of this event (hey check it out here!) and the lengths to which Inoki and Wallid Isamil went to make the event a reality.

LYOTO is fighting a pre-UFC Stephan Bonnar and comes to the ring rocking an incredibly sikk Inoki Dojo shirt (represent!) while Bonnar comes out to U2 (fucking LMAO). THE STRIKING POWER OF LYOTO! He literally pushes Bonnar around and has his nose pouring blood and his cheek cut after numerous landed counter punches and head kicks. Machida is able to get in and land multiple shots before Bonnar has anytime to react. Blood pours from his face as LYOTO continues to smash it before the doctor calls its after LYOTO slices Bonnars other cheek wide open. LYOTO showed his grappling power in his debut and here in the jungle showed the true power of Machida Shotokan Karate!



AN EVENT WITH UNFORESEEN CONSEQUENCES:
The INOKI Bom-Ba-Ye shows in all their exquisite fight boom excellence have a dark side. As the ratings on TV for each began to slip, marking the first signs of a general crash coming, the 4th event in 2003 would be the last. In a way, this was day of judgement for the MMA world in Japan as this was the event that sparked the entire Yakuza MMA scandal that would bring down the entire fight world. After people did not get paid the proper amounts and shenanigans of if Fedor or CroCop would appear, court cases in 2005 and 2006 related to this event exposed the Yakuza involvement in bankrolling of the entire MMA industry in Japan and the TV broadcasters themselves. While this final Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye event was a terrible loss of money and a final nail in the coffin for any future Inoki sponsored events, it was had reverberations that no one could have foreseen.

In the years after 2003, Inoki planned on hosting another event with the funding of LiveDoor boss Takafumi Horie called World Spectacle. Plans were to live stream it on the LiveDoor internet portal for fans internationally with a supposed main event of Kazuyuki Fujita, one of the crown fighters of Inoki Office, against MIKE TYSON (a pipe dream but one Inoki desperately wanted to make reality). The memory of the failures of the past Inoki produced events, the ongoing MMA funding scandals all coupled with the fact that Horie was uhhh fucking arrested for securities fraud put an end to these dreams. The future of Inoki's MMA management firm Inoki Office was hinged on this event and its failure to ever occur surely ruined any ability for his MMA dreams to continue.

[Look over here for a super interesting overview of both this proposed event and some of the aftermath of the Inoki BomBaYe 2003 scandal]

NOW ON TO THE FIGHT! We see in the pre-fight promo package LYOTO training with Inoki to prepare for his fight with UFC Legend RICH FRANKLIN (who is accompanied by some great techno in the pre-fight package I might add). LYOTO is rocking some shorts that say INOKI ISM STORE (fuck yes) and immediately starts whooping on Franklin (I assume channeling the power of very sikk Inokiism themed clothing). Franklin has LYOTO in the corner but is able to violently trip Franklin to the ground and begins to lay on the pressure (we also get some referee cam footage here which is a lost art in the world of MMA please bring that back). As Franklin stands up, LYOTO overwhelms him with numerous kicks before dropping Franklin with some strikes and punching him while in the ropes (always a great fighting aesthetic that is lacking in the cage). The second round begins with both striking and missing until LYOTO lands a devastating right front kick to the middle of Rich Franklin's skull giving him the first loss of his career. INOKIISM triumphs once again!



Check out this detailed overview of how LYOTO picked apart Rich Franklin:


CHOKE HIM OUT LIKE YASUDA DID LE BANNER:
After the end of INOKI branded MMA events, Inoki Office fighters found themselves mostly fighting in K-1 events. Inoki and NJPW had maintained some amount of a working relationship with K-1 throughout the MMA broadcasting wars in Japan, and after burning any remaining goodwill with PRIDE after the debacle of Bom-Ba-Ye 2003, it was really the only place where Inoki Office fighters would be welcomed.

Thankfully this relationship continued as we get to see LYOTO smash a world class kickboxer in Michael McDonald, a great tradition in the world of early 2000s MMA. A much quicker version of the Yasuda-Le Banner fight, LYOTO scores with a beautiful trip and works until he can lay his forearm across the throat of McDonald for a forearm choke finish! Kazuyuki Fujita accompanied LYOTO here and it is all smiles at the victory.



THE NIGHT THAT INOKI OFFICE TRIUMPHED:
K-1 ROMANEX was an important night for the Inoki Office. As mentioned in previous postings about Josh Barnett, this was the night where every Inoki Office managed or NJPW affiliated fighter won their bouts from top to bottom of the card. This night also was K-1's prototype for their upcoming MMA only promotion (more on that later).

LYOTO played a hand a part in this when he took on kickboxer and karateka Sam Greco. LYOTO is able to get a split decision win here in a somewhat interesting affair despite its numerous points of stalling and kind of stale corner work. Also LYOTO knees Greco in the dick way too many times in this fight, like he just kept doing it the whole fight lol.



THE FINAL YEAR OF INOKI AND THE RISE OF HEROS:
2005 marked the final year for the Inoki Office management company, closing its doors quietly at the beginning of 2006. Yet there was a few final grand moments for Inoki's dream of MMA, a top one being the super fight between LYOTO and UFC wonderkin BJ PENN. This fight occurred on the inagural K-1 HEROS show which was K-1's attempt to insert itself full time into the MMA market as PRIDE began to crack. The president of this new MMA only branch of K-1 was the amazing Akira Maeda, the genius behind RINGS Fighting Network and former student of Inoki before going his own way into the world of shoot style. I wrote about this match at my other blog that covers HEROS which I will quote in full here:

I know the boys in the last fight were big but hold up because its BJ PENN AT 191 POUNDS. He's actually eating a sandwich backstage before the bout I am not joking. Having slain all his foes in the UFC, Penn said fuck off and went to Japan for some nice paydays! His opponent is the super young yet BIG Lyoto Machida, an absolute favorite of mine from my youth of watching UFC and taking karate lessons. Let me tell you Lyoto is also in sandwich mode for this fight as he's clocking in at a whopping 225!
There story of this match is both guys completely shutting down the advancements of the other. Both of these guys are at their largest weights in their careers, and the fact that Penn and Machida are incredibly talented fighters (phenoms, prodigies, a lot has been said), means that this fight is violent yet calculated, heavy and plodding (but in a pleasant way). Machida throughout is able to land more clean shots and his schooling in karate (fuck yes) shines (kata but this time your face is in the way). Machida also catches Penn with a very sikk wrist throw (thank you commenter who pointed put that I overlooked this in my original posting.
Lyoto Machida is able to score the victory here, and how could he not while fighting with INOKIISM emblazoned on his vale tudo shorts! [Some backstory on that: K-1 and Inoki were still working together at this time and had major success in earlier years doing joint shows with PRIDE, but as those relationships soured over the years, Inokiists began appearing on HEROS cards. HEROS also had connections with a pro-wrestling group called BIG MOUTH LOUD, a splinter from NJPW, but that will be for another day!] Both of these guys are so gassed at the end of this but Penn looks particularly tired.

You should really take a peek at my other blog (which is currently on hiatus) where I fully covered the life of KINGDOM Pro-Wrestling and in the middle of examining HEROS in full! I know you'll enjoy it ;)