Lyoto Carvalho Machida (町田龍太, Machida Ryōto, Portuguese pronunciation: ) (born May 30, 1978) is a Brazilian professional mixed martial artist, currently signed with Bellator MMA, competing in the Middleweight division. He formerly competed for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), where he was the former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion, as well as a UFC Middleweight Championship title challenger.
Lyoto was born in Salvador, Brazil, as the third son of the highly ranked head of the Brazilian branch of the Japan Karate Association, Shotokan karate master Yoshizo Machida (町田嘉三). Yoshizo moved to Brazil from Japan when he was 22 years old, where he met and married Lyoto's mother, Ana Claudia, who is of Portuguese and Italian descent. Growing up in Belém, Lyoto began training in karate at the age of 3 and earned his black belt at the age of 13. He also began training in sumo at the age of 8 and Brazilian jiu-jitsu and boxing at sixteen. He won a number of amateur karate tournaments, including the 2001 Pan American Karate tournament. Later he travelled to Thailand to study Muay Thai, to Japan to study grappling at the NJPW Dojo and finally to United States to pursue his UFC career.