Chinzo Machida

Chinzo Machida Talks Fighting in his Forties, the Fight of His Life and Machida Family History

Tony Reid – How long do you feel you can fight yet?

Chinzo Machida – “I’m 41 now but I think I can fight for a few more years. If I do a good job and continue to win fights Bellator will give me more challenges and guys at a higher level. I basically just started my career with Bellator. I believe because Bellator wants to get me more fights it will work out. They have done a very good job working with me. I think because I have had such a good experience in Karate and because I train every day, I can have a longer career in fighting. I have to take one fight at a time and see what happens.”

Tony Reid – What has been the fight of your life?

Chinzo Machida – “There are a few fights that I am very glad I got to do but as soon as the fights pass I really don’t care about them anymore. It’s the experience that I took from the fight that I use moving forward. My first fight in Bellator was very memorable. It was against Mario Navarro at Bellator 160. I feel like I did a very good job because I connected on my techniques and I used my own techniques in the first round and got the finish. I think that fight was my best fight ever.”

Tony Reid – The Machida Family history is so rich. What is it like to be a part of such a family?

Chinzo Machida – “First of all my father is a Karate master. He came from Japan to Brazil when he was 22 years old. Since a very young age my brothers and I were exposed to the martial arts and the philosophy. We tried to put all the techniques we learn in our martial arts into our time in mixed martial arts. My father is a very important person in our lives. He explained not just the techniques of the arts but also about the martial arts mentality. That is also very important. He is still teaching us the techniques and philosophy to this day.

“I remember a time when we were on vacation when I was a child. My father invited us to run on the beach. He asked if we wanted to run with him. Each of the kids said ‘Me! Me! Me!’. We all wanted to go run with him. He took us to the beach and said he wasn’t going to run. The three boys were going to run. He was on the beach and he had us run a mile and a half or two miles. At the time we were between eight and twelve years old. About half way through we gave up. My father was not watching us at the moment so we decided to go back to where he was standing. We went back without finishing the run. We came back and my father had built a little mountain, like a little hill in the sand. He told us to sit down and he started to explain about the philosophy of the martial arts and life in general. He said he saw that we didn’t run the entire way to the end. He knew we didn’t finish the run. We were almost there but we came back. He said we had a challenge that we didn’t complete. He pointed to the hill he built and told us to imagine that we were half way up the hill and like our run, imagine if we just got to the middle of the hill and came back. We would never get to the top. If we never got to the top we can’t see the other side of the mountain. You don’t know what is happening there. There are many good things there but we wouldn’t know because we gave up before we got to the top. His lesson was that we have to get to the end and then you will see all the goods things that are there waiting for you. He asked if we agreed and if we understood. Then he had us go run again and make it to the end of the run. That was a very good story and a very good lesson for us. If you have a challenge, it doesn’t matter as much if you are going to win or not but at least you have to get to the end to see what is waiting there for you.”

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Tony Reid
In July of 2008 Tony Reid launched an MMA inspired clothing line that he named Reid Fight Wear. He saw a need in the MMA clothing market for a more classic, clean and timeless design and less of the dated styles seen then. In the process of major life changes, Tony cashed out his 401(k), emptied his bank account and put his heart and soul into building the brand. In August 2009 Tony began writing for TapouT and MMA Worldwide Magazines. There he created Rattling the Cage, an MMA specific news site and home for all of his work. In May of 2012 Reid began writing for Ultimate MMA Magazine, launching an MMA Legends and MMA Officials Series. Also in May of the same year he started appearing regularly on ESPN 92.3 WVSL as the MMA Insider. In early August of 2012 Reid was named General Manager of UFC Fighter Tim Boetsch’s Barbarian Combat Sports in Sunbury, PA. By December 2012 Reid started contributing to Fighters Only Magazine. "The World's Leading MMA and Lifestyle Magazine" is sold in over 30 countries around the world and has the largest reach of any international magazine of its type. In May of 2013 Reid became a monthly segment host on Sirius XM Radio. Appearing the first Thursday of every month on TapouT Radio on SiriusXM (Sirius 92 XM 208) in a segment he created called "On Blast!" where he puts people in the MMA world on notice. In June of 2013 Reid began writing for the UK based MMA Uncaged Magazine. In August of 2013, Reid launched "Rattling the Cage with Tony Reid" a talk radio show he hosted on ESPN 92.3 WVSL "The Valley's Sports Leader". The show aired over 100 episodes and featured some of the biggest and brightest stars in the world of combat sports. It was one of the most successful shows in the station's history. In May of 2016 Reid became a feature writer for FloCombat. In September of the same year Reid began writing for ONE Championship, Asia’s largest global sports media property in history. Reid is happy to now join the team at MyMMANews as a contributor.