In our June catch up we are moving from football to Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), we are interviewing Ederson Lion Macedo!! He is a professional MMA fighter, Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt and E1 world champion. Lion is now living in Cambridge, very close to us! He runs a MMA academy where you can find him and join his 1 on 1 or group sessions. If you want to become a pro MMA fighter or get introduced to the sport, you know where to find him! At Tanktoppers, we are very pleased that he had some time to talk to us! Welcome to Tanktoppers!!!!
Alejandro Torres, doing a stellar job as always, run the interview! Find all the details below!!
Welcome to this section of TankToppers, Lion. It is a real pleasure to have you with. You are our first VIP guest who lives in Cambridge. Why this city?
I moved to Cambridge three years ago because my wife lives here. We met in Hong Kong while I was working as an MMA Coach at Everlast Gym. After a few years of long distance relationship we decided to get married and live together in Cambridge.

Becoming a professional athlete is never easy, but seems even harder if the sport is MMA. When did you realise that you could do it as a job?
Since I was a kid I’ve been training lots of different martial art styles. I always enjoyed watching fight movies and focused a lot on my training and took part in a lot of fighting competitions. When I was 18 I had my first amateur fight and realised that I could turn this into a career.
Strenghening and endurance training are two of the basis of your weekly plan and also for our sessions in TankToppers. Do you enjoy more your “bench presses” or your “interval-training runnings”?
I really enjoy weight training, but interval training is crucial for my fight preparation too. MMA rounds are usually 3x 5 minutes, which means you need good endurance to last three rounds of fighting.
How can a Cambridge citizen practise amateur MMA?
If you’re interested to become a professional fighter or even just train as a hobby, I offer MMA one on one training sessions as well as Group classes every Friday 7pm-8pm at Axis BJJ, 115 Norman Industrial Estate, Cambridge Road, CB24 6AT, Milton.
Let’s say goodbye with our usual cheeky test so we can get you to know better:
The exercise that you would make someone you don’t like to do:
Finishing off an MMA sparring Session with a 15-minute cardio workout on the Assault AirBike at high density.
Your last ‘cheat meal’:
Chocolate
A pre-competition habit:
Daily cardio, weight training, pad work, grappling and studying my opponent.
An alternative sport to yours:
Airsoft
A place where you have not flighted and would like to do it:
I would love to fight in Japan
