The rookie
2009 Topps UFC Round 2 #90
The card the market treats as Machida's rookie. Round 2 shipped 30 September 2009, four months after he knocked out Rashad Evans at UFC 98 to take the light heavyweight title, so this is the first base card of him as champion and the one that gets slabbed as an RC. The five-tier parallel ladder — Gold, Onyx /188, Bronze /88, Ruby /8, Diamond 1/1 — makes it a rainbow project.
- Earliest licensed card2009 Topps UFC Round 1 #59 High confidence
- First MMA card2009 Topps UFC Round 1 #59 High confidence
- First UFC card2009 Topps UFC Round 1 #59 High confidence
- First certified autograph2009 Topps UFC Round 2 Autographs #FA-LM High confidence
- Recognized rookie card2009 Topps UFC Round 2 #90 High confidence
The evidence behind each
- 2009Earliest licensed card — SportsCardsPro's card page confirms 'Lyoto Machida, Sam Hoger #59' in 2009 Topps UFC Round 1. No earlier Machida card appears in any price guide or register reached, including the 2006 Japanese PRIDE set, which he is not part of — he fought in K-1 Hero's and Japanese regional promotions rather than PRIDE.
- 2009First MMA card — Collectibles.com's Machida register records nothing before 2009 and states he 'debuted as a Rookie in 2009'.
- 2009First UFC card — SportsCardsPro's 2009 Topps UFC Round 1 set list; Topps held no UFC licence before 2009.
- 2009First certified autograph — Collectibles.com's Machida register lists '2009 Topps UFC Round 2 Autographs #FA-LM' and its Red Ink parallel among his earliest cards. The 2009 Topps UFC Round 1 product carries no Machida signature.
- 2009Recognized rookie card — Collectibles.com's register lists '2009 Topps UFC Round 2 #90 RC' and states he 'debuted as a Rookie in 2009'; eBay's catalogue title for the same card reads '(RC)'. No competing card is flagged by any database.
Key Machida cards
11 cards chosen for significance, not completeness; autographs and numbered cards follow below.
Card history
Machida fought for four years in Japan and Brazil — NJPW's Ultimate Crush, Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye, K-1's Beast and Romanex cards, Hero's 1 and Jungle Fight — and came out of it with no cardboard at all. He never fought in PRIDE, so he is absent from the 2006 Pride FC set that gave other Japan-era fighters a starting point, and no Japanese issue of him is catalogued. Collectibles.com puts it plainly: he 'debuted as a Rookie in 2009'. His history therefore begins with Topps' UFC licence, at 2009 Topps UFC Round 1 #59, a shared UFC-debut card pairing him with Sam Hoger from UFC 67, alongside the Victorious Debuts insert #VD5 — his first solo card, with a Gold parallel numbered to 88.
The card the market treats as his rookie is 2009 Topps UFC Round 2 #90, released on 30 September 2009, four months after he knocked out Rashad Evans at UFC 98 for the light heavyweight title — his first solo base card in a licensed set and the first of him as champion. It carries a five-tier parallel ladder: Gold, a /188 tier, a /88 tier, Ruby /8 and Diamond 1/1, though sources disagree on the tier names, Cardboard Connection calling the /188 tier Onyx where nslists calls it Silver. Sources also disagree on the RC designation itself: eBay's catalogue title reads '(RC)' and Collectibles.com lists '#90 RC', while SportsCardsPro's own data field on the same card says 'Is Rookie Card: No'. A minority of sellers argue for Round 1 #59 or Victorious Debuts #VD5 on the grounds that they came first, but #59 is a shared card and #VD5 is an insert.
Round 2 is also where the signed Machida cards start. He had no autograph in Round 1; the Autographs card #FA-LM is his first certified signature and it is on-card, signed directly on the card in the way Cardboard Connection describes the subset. The same product holds a Greats of the Game insert (#GTG-4, built around the fighters in the UFC 2009 Undisputed video game) and two dual-signed fight mat relics, one with Anderson Silva and one with Quinton Jackson, from a ten-subject hobby-exclusive subset that Cardboard Connection numbers to 25 where Jeff Allender's checklist heads it '# to 5'. The codes on those two are crossed in the sources — the checklist the archive follows gives Machida's Silva pairing as #DAMS, while Collectibles.com's register lists his Round 2 dual mat relic as #DAMJ — so a collector should search both. Be careful with a bare 'FA-LM' too: the 2010 Topps UFC Series 4 autograph checklist reuses the same code, so the year on the back decides which card it is.
The years after the title run are a thin, steady drip. 2010 Topps UFC Main Event #13 put him in retail blasters as a reigning-champion name and is the Machida card most likely to turn up in a bulk lot. 2011 Finest UFC #25 gave him his first chromium card, in the product line every later Topps Chrome UFC release descends from. Then 2012 Topps UFC Bloodlines — a set organised around national heritage, which suits a Brazilian karateka with a Japanese father — delivered base #21 with Flag /188, Black /88, Red /8 and Platinum 1/1 parallels, plus the two cards a Machida specialist chases hardest: the International Incident dual autograph with Jon Jones (#IIDA-JM, /25), issued a year after Jones choked him out at UFC 140, and a dual autographed relic with Mauricio Rua numbered to 10.
In the modern era Machida is filed under legends rather than fighters. He is not in the 200-card base checklist of 2024 Topps Chrome UFC at all; he appears in the 1954 Topps and AKA inserts and, more importantly, in Octagon Legends Autographs (#OLA-LMA), the retired-greats signature subset that falls around 1:118 hobby packs, with the unnumbered base autograph as the entry point and Refractor /150, Gold /50, Orange /25, Black /10, Red /5 and SuperFractor 1/1 above it. Collectibles.com also records 2025 Stadium Club UFC and Topps Royalty autographs and a 2026 Topps Knockout UFC autograph, so his current cards are signature cards in legends subsets rather than base cards.
Autographs
4 certified autographs in the archive.
Card eras
Five years of fighting in Japan and Brazil — NJPW, Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye, K-1 Beast, Hero's 1 (a decision win over BJ Penn) and Jungle Fight — produced no licensed trading card that any catalogue records. Collectibles.com states flatly that he 'debuted as a Rookie in 2009'.
Round 1 #59 pairs him with Sam Hoger from his UFC 67 debut, and Victorious Debuts #VD5 (Gold /88) is his first solo card. Neither carries an RC tag.
Round 2, released 30 September 2009, shipped four months after he knocked out Rashad Evans at UFC 98 for the light heavyweight title. #90 is the RC-tagged card, and the product also gave him his first on-card autograph (#FA-LM, in the Round 2 Autographs subset), a Greats of the Game insert (#GTG-4), a fight mat relic (#FM-LM) and two dual-signed mat relics numbered to 25 — one with Anderson Silva and one with Quinton Jackson.
Main Event #13 put him in blasters, Series 4 added a Bloodlines insert (#BL-8), and 2011 Finest UFC #25 gave him his first chromium card in the product line that every later Topps Chrome UFC release descends from.
The heritage-themed Bloodlines set suited a Brazilian karateka with a Japanese father: base #21, a dual autograph with Jon Jones (#IIDA-JM /25) issued a year after UFC 140, and a dual autographed relic with Mauricio Rua (#BDAR-RM /10).
Topps Chrome UFC 2024 leaves him out of the 200-card base set and puts him in the Octagon Legends Autographs subset (#OLA-LMA, Refractor /150 to SuperFractor 1/1) plus the 1954 Topps and AKA inserts. Collectibles.com also records 2025 Stadium Club UFC and Topps Royalty autographs and a 2026 Topps Knockout UFC autograph for him.
Rookie parallels
Sets
Where Machida's key cards come from.
- 20092009 Topps UFC Round 22 key cards
- 20092009 Topps UFC Round 11 key card
- 20092009 Topps UFC Round 1 Victorious Debuts1 key card
- 20092009 Topps UFC Round 2 Autographs1 key card
- 20092009 Topps UFC Round 2 Greats of the Game1 key card
- 20102010 Topps UFC Main Event1 key card
- 20112011 Finest UFC1 key card
- 20122012 Topps UFC Bloodlines1 key card
- 20122012 Topps UFC Bloodlines — International Incident Dual Autographs1 key card
- 20242024 Topps Chrome UFC — Octagon Legends Autographs1 key card
Buying & wanted
- 012009 Topps UFC Round 2 #90 in Ruby /8 or Diamond 1/1 — the RC-tagged base card at the top of its parallel ladder
- 022009 Topps UFC Round 2 Autographs #FA-LM, his first on-card signature
- 032009 Topps UFC Round 2 Dual Autograph Fight Mat Relics /25, Machida and Anderson Silva on one mat relic — listed as #DAMS in one checklist and #DAMJ in one register, so search both
- 042012 Topps UFC Bloodlines International Incident Dual Autographs #IIDA-JM /25 with Jon Jones
- 052009 Topps UFC Round 1 #59, the earliest Machida card and the one most collectors skip
Nothing from the archive is currently available.
Cards come and go one at a time. Selling one?
No FightCardboard verified sales recorded yet.
A verified sale is a transaction we completed or watched happen. Until there is one, there is nothing here to cite.
Sources & research High confidence×12Probable×5
Every factual claim on this page, the evidence behind it, and an honest confidence level. Where sources disagree the disagreement is kept, not quietly resolved.
Lyoto Machida's rookie card: 2009 Topps UFC Round 2 #90 — Lyoto Machida.
2009 Topps UFC Round 2 #90 is the only Machida card any reachable catalogue actually tags as a rookie. eBay's catalogue title reads '2009 Topps UFC Round 2 - Lyoto Machida #90 (RC)' and the listing's product features say 'Rookie, Base Set'; Collectibles.com's Machida register lists '2009 Topps UFC Round 2 #90 RC' as his rookie and states he 'debuted as a Rookie in 2009'. It is also his first solo base card in a UFC-licensed set and the first issued after he won the light heavyweight title at UFC 98. The competing claim is chronological rather than catalogued: Round 1 #59 is seven months earlier.
- eBay2009 Topps UFC Round 2 - Lyoto Machida #90 (RC) (listing), accessed September 22, 2026
- Collectibles.comLyoto Machida Cards: Values, Rookies, accessed September 22, 2026
- SportsCardsProLyoto Machida #90 | 2009 Topps UFC Round 2, accessed September 22, 2026
- NSListsUFC Round 2 (Topps, 2009) checklist, accessed September 21, 2026
- SportsCardsProLyoto Machida, Sam Hoger #59 | 2009 Topps UFC Round 1, accessed September 22, 2026
- Cardboard Connection2009 Topps UFC Round 2 Review, accessed September 20, 2026 Source for parallel structure, insert sets and box configuration. Internally inconsistent on Onyx serial numbering (base /188 vs insert /88) — see claim-r2-onyx.
Machida fought for four years in Japan and Brazil — NJPW's Ultimate Crush, Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye, K-1's Beast and Romanex cards, Hero's 1 and Jungle Fight — and came out of it with no cardboard at all. He never fought in PRIDE, so he is absent from the 2006 Pride FC set that gave other Japan-era fighters a starting point, and no Japanese issue of him is catalogued. Collectibles.com puts it plainly: he 'debuted as a Rookie in 2009'. His history therefore begins with Topps' UFC licence, at 2009 Topps UFC Round 1 #59, a shared UFC-debut card pairing him with Sam Hoger from UFC 67, alongside the Victorious Debuts insert #VD5 — his first solo card, with a Gold parallel numbered to 88.
The card the market treats as his rookie is 2009 Topps UFC Round 2 #90, released on 30 September 2009, four months after he knocked out Rashad Evans at UFC 98 for the light heavyweight title — his first solo base card in a licensed set and the first of him as champion. It carries a five-tier parallel ladder: Gold, a /188 tier, a /88 tier, Ruby /8 and Diamond 1/1, though sources disagree on the tier names, Cardboard Connection calling the /188 tier Onyx where nslists calls it Silver. Sources also disagree on the RC designation itself: eBay's catalogue title reads '(RC)' and Collectibles.com lists '#90 RC', while SportsCardsPro's own data field on the same card says 'Is Rookie Card: No'. A minority of sellers argue for Round 1 #59 or Victorious Debuts #VD5 on the grounds that they came first, but #59 is a shared card and #VD5 is an insert.
Round 2 is also where the signed Machida cards start. He had no autograph in Round 1; the Autographs card #FA-LM is his first certified signature and it is on-card, signed directly on the card in the way Cardboard Connection describes the subset. The same product holds a Greats of the Game insert (#GTG-4, built around the fighters in the UFC 2009 Undisputed video game) and two dual-signed fight mat relics, one with Anderson Silva and one with Quinton Jackson, from a ten-subject hobby-exclusive subset that Cardboard Connection numbers to 25 where Jeff Allender's checklist heads it '# to 5'. The codes on those two are crossed in the sources — the checklist the archive follows gives Machida's Silva pairing as #DAMS, while Collectibles.com's register lists his Round 2 dual mat relic as #DAMJ — so a collector should search both. Be careful with a bare 'FA-LM' too: the 2010 Topps UFC Series 4 autograph checklist reuses the same code, so the year on the back decides which card it is.
- NSListsUFC Round 2 (Topps, 2009) checklist, accessed September 21, 2026
- Cardboard Connection2009 Topps UFC Round 2 Review, accessed September 20, 2026 Source for parallel structure, insert sets and box configuration. Internally inconsistent on Onyx serial numbering (base /188 vs insert /88) — see claim-r2-onyx.
- Collectibles.comLyoto Machida Cards: Values, Rookies, accessed September 22, 2026
The years after the title run are a thin, steady drip. 2010 Topps UFC Main Event #13 put him in retail blasters as a reigning-champion name and is the Machida card most likely to turn up in a bulk lot. 2011 Finest UFC #25 gave him his first chromium card, in the product line every later Topps Chrome UFC release descends from. Then 2012 Topps UFC Bloodlines — a set organised around national heritage, which suits a Brazilian karateka with a Japanese father — delivered base #21 with Flag /188, Black /88, Red /8 and Platinum 1/1 parallels, plus the two cards a Machida specialist chases hardest: the International Incident dual autograph with Jon Jones (#IIDA-JM, /25), issued a year after Jones choked him out at UFC 140, and a dual autographed relic with Mauricio Rua numbered to 10.
In the modern era Machida is filed under legends rather than fighters. He is not in the 200-card base checklist of 2024 Topps Chrome UFC at all; he appears in the 1954 Topps and AKA inserts and, more importantly, in Octagon Legends Autographs (#OLA-LMA), the retired-greats signature subset that falls around 1:118 hobby packs, with the unnumbered base autograph as the entry point and Refractor /150, Gold /50, Orange /25, Black /10, Red /5 and SuperFractor 1/1 above it. Collectibles.com also records 2025 Stadium Club UFC and Topps Royalty autographs and a 2026 Topps Knockout UFC autograph, so his current cards are signature cards in legends subsets rather than base cards.
2009 Topps UFC Round 2 #90 — Lyoto Machida.
- NSListsUFC Round 2 (Topps, 2009) checklist, accessed September 21, 2026
- SportsCardsProLyoto Machida #90 | 2009 Topps UFC Round 2, accessed September 22, 2026
- eBay2009 Topps UFC Round 2 - Lyoto Machida #90 (RC) (listing), accessed September 22, 2026
- Collectibles.comLyoto Machida Cards: Values, Rookies, accessed September 22, 2026
- Cardboard Connection2009 Topps UFC Round 2 Review, accessed September 20, 2026 Source for parallel structure, insert sets and box configuration. Internally inconsistent on Onyx serial numbering (base /188 vs insert /88) — see claim-r2-onyx.
2009 Topps UFC Round 1 #59 — Lyoto Machida / Sam Hoger.
2009 Topps UFC Round 1 Victorious Debuts #VD5 — Lyoto Machida.
- NSListsUFC Round 1 (Topps, 2009) checklist, accessed September 21, 2026
- eBay2009 Topps UFC Round 1 Victorious Debuts LYOTO MACHIDA #VD5 (listing title seen in search results), accessed September 22, 2026
- Fanatics Collect2009 Topps UFC Round 1 Victorious Debut #VD5 Lyoto Machida, accessed September 22, 2026
2009 Topps UFC Round 2 Fighter Autographs #FA-LM — Lyoto Machida.
- NSListsUFC Round 2 (Topps, 2009) checklist, accessed September 21, 2026
- Collectibles.comLyoto Machida Cards: Values, Rookies, accessed September 22, 2026
- Cardboard Connection2009 Topps UFC Round 2 Review, accessed September 20, 2026 Source for parallel structure, insert sets and box configuration. Internally inconsistent on Onyx serial numbering (base /188 vs insert /88) — see claim-r2-onyx.
2009 Topps UFC Round 2 #DAMS — Anderson Silva / Lyoto Machida.
2009 Topps UFC Round 2 Greats of the Game #GTG-4 — Lyoto Machida.
- NSListsUFC Round 2 (Topps, 2009) checklist, accessed September 21, 2026
- Cardboard Connection2009 Topps UFC Round 2 Review, accessed September 20, 2026 Source for parallel structure, insert sets and box configuration. Internally inconsistent on Onyx serial numbering (base /188 vs insert /88) — see claim-r2-onyx.
2010 Topps UFC Main Event #13 — Lyoto Machida.
2011 Finest UFC #25 — Lyoto Machida.
2012 Topps UFC Bloodlines #21 — Lyoto Machida.
2012 Topps UFC Bloodlines — International Incident Dual Autographs #IIDA-JM — Lyoto Machida / Jon Jones.
2024 Topps Chrome UFC — Octagon Legends Autographs #OLA-LMA — Lyoto Machida.
- Checklist Insider2024 Topps Chrome UFC Checklist, accessed September 21, 2026
- SportsCardsProLyoto Machida #OLA-LMA | 2024 Topps Chrome UFC Octagon Legends Autograph, accessed September 22, 2026
- eBayLyoto Machida 2024 Topps Chrome UFC Octagon Legends Refractor Auto 143/150 (listing), accessed September 22, 2026
- eBayLyoto Machida 2024 Topps Chrome UFC 1954 Topps Refractor #FFT-12 (listing), accessed September 22, 2026