{"id":279352,"date":"2018-06-26T06:09:40","date_gmt":"2018-06-26T13:09:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?p=279352"},"modified":"2018-06-26T06:09:55","modified_gmt":"2018-06-26T13:09:55","slug":"lyoto-machida-moved-to-bellator-even-though-the-ufc-matched-offer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/lyoto-machida\/lyoto-machida-moved-to-bellator-even-though-the-ufc-matched-offer\/","title":{"rendered":"Lyoto Machida explains why he moved to Bellator even though the UFC matched offer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Former UFC light heavyweight champion Lyoto Machida has long been considered one of MMA&#8217;s true good guys, and he has once again proven why that&#8217;s the case.<\/p>\n<p>It was recently announced that Machida had <a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/lyoto-machida\/lyoto-machida-issues-statement-on-move-to-bellator-mma\/\">signed with Bellator MMA<\/a>. Apparently, the UFC actually matched the offer that Bellator made Machida, but he moved to Bellator anyway because he&#8217;d already told the promotion&#8217;s decision makers that he would, and he&#8217;s a man of his word.<\/p>\n<p id=\"Kqv7UA\">\u201cI went to Bellator and they made me an offer I couldn\u2019t refuse,&#8221; Machida said on <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/i\/events\/964202978675605505\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Ariel Helwani&#8217;s MMA Show<\/a>\u00a0(transcribed by Adam Guillen Jr. for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/2018\/6\/25\/17503348\/lyoto-machida-signed-with-bellator-after-ufc-matched-offer-because-hes-a-man-of-his-word-mma\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">MMAMania<\/a>). &#8220;Everything was okay. UFC did match everything, but I was keeping my word to Scott Coker an Mike Kogan.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I am a man of my word,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;So when UFC did match everything, I couldn\u2019t come back again. Scott Coker asked me how much I would like to receive for fight. So he said, \u2018Lyoto, if I give that to you, will you jump aboard to Bellator?\u2019 And I said yes. When I come back to UFC and tell everything that happened, UFC match everything, but you know I had gave my word to Scott Coker and Bellator and that is one of my principles so I can not go back on my word. So if I say something I have to do what I said.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Needless to say, Lyoto Machida is a stand-up guy \u2014 and I&#8217;m not just talking about his propensity for<a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/lyoto-machida\/mma-community-reacts-to-lyoto-machidas-insane-knockout-of-vitor-belfort\/\"> highlight reel knockouts<\/a>. See what I did there?<\/p>\n<p>While the circumstances of Lyoto Machida&#8217;s Bellator debut are not yet known, he&#8217;s certainly got plenty of interesting options when it comes to potential opponents. In fact, he would seem to have a readily available short-cut to both the Bellator light heavyweight and middleweight titles, as he holds decisive wins over both light heavyweight champ Ryan Bader, and middleweight champ Gegard Mousasi.<\/p>\n<p>Who do you want to see Lyoto Machida fight in his Bellator debut?<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><i>This article first appeared on\u00a0<\/i><a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>BJPenn.com<\/i><\/span><\/a><i>\u00a0on 6\/26\/2018. <\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former UFC light heavyweight champion Lyoto Machida has long been considered one of MMA&#8217;s true good guys, and he has once again proven why that&#8217;s the case. It was recently announced that Machida had signed with Bellator MMA. Apparently, the UFC actually matched the offer that Bellator made Machida, but he moved to Bellator anyway [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54430,"featured_media":279353,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[10087],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v19.7 (Yoast SEO v19.14) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Lyoto Machida explains why he moved to Bellator even though the UFC matched offer | BJPenn.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/lyoto-machida\/lyoto-machida-moved-to-bellator-even-though-the-ufc-matched-offer\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lyoto Machida explains why he moved to Bellator even though the UFC matched offer | BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Former UFC light heavyweight champion Lyoto Machida has long been considered one of MMA&#8217;s true good guys, and he has once again proven why that&#8217;s the case. It was recently announced that Machida had signed with Bellator MMA. Apparently, the UFC actually matched the offer that Bellator made Machida, but he moved to Bellator anyway [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/lyoto-machida\/lyoto-machida-moved-to-bellator-even-though-the-ufc-matched-offer\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"| BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bjpenn\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-06-26T13:09:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-06-26T13:09:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/Lyoto-Machida.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"696\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"399\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tom Taylor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@bjpenndotcom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@bjpenndotcom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Tom Taylor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/lyoto-machida\/lyoto-machida-moved-to-bellator-even-though-the-ufc-matched-offer\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/lyoto-machida\/lyoto-machida-moved-to-bellator-even-though-the-ufc-matched-offer\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Tom Taylor\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/e1a3f1e5a045aeaf5b59aa1549a06a87\"},\"headline\":\"Lyoto Machida explains why he moved to Bellator even though the UFC matched offer\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-06-26T13:09:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-06-26T13:09:55+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/lyoto-machida\/lyoto-machida-moved-to-bellator-even-though-the-ufc-matched-offer\/\"},\"wordCount\":352,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Lyoto Machida\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"copyrightYear\":\"2018\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/lyoto-machida\/lyoto-machida-moved-to-bellator-even-though-the-ufc-matched-offer\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/lyoto-machida\/lyoto-machida-moved-to-bellator-even-though-the-ufc-matched-offer\/\",\"name\":\"Lyoto Machida explains why he moved to Bellator even though the UFC matched offer | BJPenn.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2018-06-26T13:09:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-06-26T13:09:55+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/lyoto-machida\/lyoto-machida-moved-to-bellator-even-though-the-ufc-matched-offer\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/lyoto-machida\/lyoto-machida-moved-to-bellator-even-though-the-ufc-matched-offer\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/lyoto-machida\/lyoto-machida-moved-to-bellator-even-though-the-ufc-matched-offer\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"MMA News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Lyoto Machida\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/lyoto-machida\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":4,\"name\":\"Lyoto Machida explains why he moved to Bellator even though the UFC matched offer\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\",\"name\":\"| BJPenn.com\",\"description\":\"MMA &amp; 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