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funny shit, found this on the net: A New Japan Pro Wrestling card would be LYOTO’s [FONT=verdana,geneva,lucida,'lucida grande',arial,helvetica,sans-serif]professional[/FONT] Mixed Martial Arts debut. The confusion of placing sanctioned Mixed Martial Arts bouts on a pro wrestling card, in a night featuring pro wrestlers vs. pro fighters in both pro wrestling and MMA bouts was immense. If anything, this fits right into Dave Meltzer’s world view of pro wrestling and MMA being the “same.†LYOTO made his debut against the less-than-game Kengo Watanabe, who had a decent record against pro wrestlers like Dos Caras Jr. and Tomohiko Hashimoto, but mixed against actual competition. LYOTO came in to tons of hype and fanfare, months of mysterious Inoki-led hype of LYOTO being the best fighter in the world and then dragged out a decision against Kengo. While a win is a win, especially in a pro fighter’s debut, LYOTO was met with a hard slap to the face by Inoki, as well as two straight punches on live Japanese television for lacking “fighting spirit.†This was not what Inoki was looking for. Lyoto was not the fighter that he was supposed to be. This slap and public barrage of insults proved to be a bittersweet and telling beginning to Lyoto Machida’s career. One could say it motivated the careful and cerebral Machida in his next 3 fights, where he cut Stephan Bonnar under the eye bad enough to stop the bout in Inoki’s first Jungle Fight event, then a rather brutal TKO of the now former UFC Middleweight Champion, Rich Franklin, and finally a guillotine choke of Michael McDonald in a K-1 show (Inoki and NJPW, at the time, had a good working relationship with K-1). Out of Lyoto’s next 9 wins, 7 have been via decision, with huge wins over and undersized BJ Penn, Kazuhiro Nakamura and Tito Ortiz.
REED Saw that on the Machida-Rashad Countdown Show...Hardcore Shit...But to his Credit, Machida Took Those Shots w/Out Budging... REED:bears:
