Lyoto Machida Discusses Living With Daniel Bryan And Shinsuke Nakamura

– Bellator fighter Lyoto Machida recently spoke to Fightful ahead of his bout against Chael Sonnen. In the interview, Machida discussed his time living with WWE superstars Shinsuke Nakamura and Daniel Bryan.

On Living With Nakamura: “It was in 2003 in the New Japan Pro Wrestling Academy. It was important to me, I learned so many things about fighting and life. I was by myself and not married, I didn’t have kids, and I stayed with those people for almost 6 months. I lived there, slept there, ate there. It’s a good memory for me. I’m so grateful to have the opportunity to go through the academy and made so many friends. I didn’t want to do pro wrestling. I trained it there back in the day, and I respect it and watch it sometimes, but I don’t like to do it.

“You know what happened? Nakamura just got to New Japan Pro Wrestling, and (Simon) Inoki wanted to promote both of us, me more in MMA, and Nakamura more in pro wrestling. There was some competition between us, but nothing really happened. There was a respect between us. Sometimes we trained together. I’m happy for the brilliant career he’s had. I’ve not had any contact with him at all, because I moved to Brazil.”

On His Relationship With Daniel Bryan: “I saw Bryan, because he has a very good career. I’d heard that he retired and wrote a book. We had some great times and conversations, he was a nice guy. I really respect him. He was great, too. I’m so happy to see these legends and all of their success. Especially Bryan. I was watching TV and he had this beard, and I didn’t recognize him. I was like ‘I used to live with that guy!’ I was so happy because of that.”