Machamp is a bipedal Pokémon and is notable for being extremely muscled and having four arms. Its skin color is bluish-gray and it has red colored eyes. On its head, there are three ridges right above it eyes, which are also right above its frog-like mouth. It has two arms on each side of its body, a pair located where its arms were in its pre-evolved form, and another pair directly above that attached and the top of the shoulder. It wears black underwear along with the power-save belt that Machoke had. Its legs are also quite muscled and its feet only have two toes.
Gender differences
None.
Special abilities
It punches extremely fast. Its attacks send the foes flying over mountains.
Morrison battled against a Machamp and Marowak belonging to a very muscular Trainer named Gavin during the Hoenn League in From Brags to Riches. Morrison's Gligar managed to defeat Gavin's Machamp.
Several Machamp and Machoke appear as construction workers in Bibarel Gnaws Best!.
In the manga
In Pokémon Special, Green has a Machamp that evolved when it was under Red's ownership, reflecting Machoke's evolution being triggered by trade. It was later seen in Template:PSV, fighting Red's Snorlax at Indigo Plateau, blocking its attacks and even managing to lift its huge bulk. Ultimately, Machamp was knocked out after Snorlax came back with an aerial Double-Edge.
Green later brings Machamp to the Sevii Islands, in which Machamp makes extremely short work of Red's Snorlax during the training session on Two Island.
Machamp has the power to hurl anything aside. However, trying to do any work requiring care and dexterity causes its arms to get tangled. This Pokémon tends to leap into action before it thinks.
Machamp is known as the Pokémon that has mastered every kind of martial arts. If it grabs hold of the foe with its four arms, the battle is all but over. The hapless foe is thrown far over the horizon.
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As depicted in Machamp's Generation I sprite, it originally had one 'ridge' on its head and two horns. This seems to have been dropped for three ridges instead. This can be easily seen in Machamp's back sprite.
The Emerald sprite doesn't have a belt on it.
In Pokémon Yellow, a NPC will trade a Cubone for Machoke, which will then evolve to Machamp. Thus, with the breeding system introduced in Generation II, it is possible to acquire a fully evolved Machamp as low as level 5.
Strangely, Machamp's Generation I back sprite seems not to have four arms.
Origin
Machamp appears to be based on a bodybuilder or wrestler. Also, due to having four arms, it could have been inspired by Kintaro, a boss character from Mortal Kombat II. Seeing as it has more than two arms, and blue skin, Machamp might also be based on a Hindu god, perhaps Shiva or Vishnu. Also, due to having four arms, it could have been inspired by Tenshinhan, a character from the Dragonball Series, in the series, Tenshinhan has the ability to grow an additional set of arms.
Name origin
Machamp's name may be a combination of champion and macho, which is Spanish for overly masculine or chauvinist. Macho has come to mean tough or masculine in English. Like Mr. Mime, this is not reflected in the gender distribution. Kairiky is a corruption of 怪力 kairiki, superhuman strength. It is worth noting that kairiki is the Japanese name of Strength.
French: Mackogneur - Macho has a similar meaning as in English. Cogneur means slugger. The ch was likely replaced by the ck to keep the sound of cogneur intact.
This Pokémon article is part of Project Pokédex, a Bulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive articles on each Pokémon species, as well as Pokémon groups and forms.
For other sprites and images, please see Machamp images on Bulbagarden Archives.
