The Dragon aims to become The Master
by Ben Blackmore, 10 May 2008
Chalk and cheese. Black and White. Fire and ice…Ortiz and Machida. “UFC 84: ILL WILL” is approaching fast, and you will not find a better contrast in The UFC than “The Huntingdon Beach Bad Boy” and “The Dragon”.
Tito Ortiz is one of the most showbiz fighters in The UFC, a hugely popular former UFC light-heavyweight champion and current partner of Jenna Jameson.
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Machida is a 29-year-old Karate expert, with an unblemished 12-fight MMA career, who sacrificed his social life to follow in the footsteps of his father.
Training out of the same Black House team as Anderson Silva, Machida has been brought up on Shotokan Karate all his life – making him one of the sport’s trickiest customers.
Ortiz has already done plenty of pre-fight talking, ironically saying ‘this guy Machida isn’t worth talking about’, but “The Dragon’s” only concern is the opinion of his father – his biggest critic.
“My father respects my career, enjoys watching my fights and always finds flaws in them,” said the Brazilian, who has four UFC victories to his name.
“For him, it's never good enough, which is great for me because I always want to get better.
“I believe that without discipline there is no result. That's why for an athlete to get results he needs to stop doing certain things. Waking up early to train karate with my father is the most difficult, 5:30 am. My father schedules this time to make it difficult.”
Machida, an unorthodox southpaw, has been tipped to become a future champion of the UFC light-heavyweight division, and he believes he is finally ready to kick-start his ascent to the top.
“I train and have trained a lot, always. I do many repetitions, many hours of training. While my friends were out playing and at parties, I was training.
“I believe that I've gotten to this point in my career because I always wanted this very much.”
To watch "UFC 85: BEDLAM", which features Hughes v Alves and Bisping v Day in Setanta Sports' inaugural live UFC event, click here.
For the UFC's official website, go to www.uk.ufc.com.