#2
Maricio Rua
“Shogun”
Summary: Very aggressive, excellent background in Muay Thai and Jiu-Jitsu, strength
Fighter Info
Nickname: | Shogun |
From: | Curitiba Brazil |
Fights Out Of: | Curitiba Brazil |
Age: | 29 |
Height: | 6' 1" ( 185 cm ) |
Weight: | 205 lb ( 93 kg ) |
Rua started his professional career at vale tudo events in Brazil, achieving three stoppages due to strikes, including a win over future Chute Boxe teammate Evangelista Santos. In a fast-paced bout, Santos matched Rua on the feet until Rua took Santos to the ground and forced a stoppage due to strikes from mount. Shogun then entered the International Fighting Championship's (IFC) "Global Domination" tournament. Rua won his first bout against Eric Wanderlei due to punches, and in the second bout got the first submission loss of his career against Renato Sobral with a guillotine choke in the third round.
Following his victory in the IFC tournament, Shogun made his way to Japan to enter the Pride Fighting Championship. He made his Pride debut at the inaugural Pride Bushido 1, a side promotion for lighter weight fighters. In his three Bushido appearances, Rua defeated Akira Shoji, Akihiro Gono, and Yasuhito Namekawa all by strikes in the first round. With his success, Rua graduated to his debut in a main Pride event at Pride 29, where he faced former professional wrestler Hiromitsu Kanehara. Rua defeated Kanehara by stomps early in the first round.
Rua's success and similar background led to comparisons with his Chute Boxe teammate and Pride Middleweight Champion Wanderlei Silva. However, when he entered the PRIDE 2005 Middleweight Grand Prix tournament, he entered as a heavy underdog. For the first round of the tounament at Pride Total Elimination 2005, he faced Quinton Jackson, whom he had challenged after Jackson won a controversial split decision over his brother, Murilo at PRIDE 29. Jackson had been the runner-up in the Pride 2003 Middleweight Grand Prix, but Maurício dominated the favored fighter from beginning to end, breaking Jackson's ribs with knee strikes and ending the fight in dramatic fashion with soccer kicks to the face in the first round. Jackson later stated that Shogun was the best fighter he had ever fought.[8] In the second round at Pride Critical Countdown 2005, Rua faced Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, a member of Chute Boxe's rival academy Brazilian Top Team. Rua defeated Nogueira by unanimous decision. On August 28, 2005, Rua participated in Pride Final Conflict 2005, in which the last two rounds of the tournament were held on the same night. Rua defeated Alistair Overeem by TKO in the first round, while Ricardo Arona defeated Rua's teammate Wanderlei Silva by decision. Rua and Arona faced each other in the final bout of the tournament. At 2:54 in the first round, Rua knocked Arona out with punches to win the bout and become the 2005 Middleweight Grand Prix winner. It wrapped up a year in which he won Fighter of the Year honors from Sherdog.com
Maurício "Shogun" Rua attacks Hiromitsu Kanehara with a flying stomp. Shogun exhibited noted ability with his kicks and stomps against grounded opponents throughout his career in Pride.
In the very next fight after his Grand Prix win, Shogun faced heavyweight wrestler and Pride Grand Prix 2000 winner Mark Coleman at Pride 31. As Coleman executed a takedown, Rua landed awkwardly and dislocated his elbow, forcing a stoppage due to injury. At Pride Final Conflict Absolute he defeated French kickboxer Cyrille Diabate by TKO due to stomps. At Pride 32 he submitted former UFC Heavyweight Champion Kevin Randleman with a kneebar at 2:35 of the first round. In his final Pride appearance at Pride 33, he fought a rematch with Alistair Overeem and knocked the Dutchman out at 3:37 of the first round.
After the UFC bought out Pride, Shogun signed on with the UFC and made his highly anticipated debut in the organization at UFC 76. The fight was Rua's first fight under the Unified Rules of MMA, which allow elbows but prohibit kicks and knees to the head of a downed opponent. Facing The Ultimate Fighter 1 winner Forrest Griffin, Rua was widely regarded as the top light heavyweight fighter in the world and considered a heavy favorite to win.[12] However, Rua had difficulty with the larger Griffin and became exhausted in the second round of the fight. After losing both of the previous rounds, Rua ultimately succumbed to a rear naked choke in the final seconds of the third round. Most blame his poor cardiovascular fitness on the fact that Rua suffered a knee injury during training for the fight. He re-injured the knee during the fight and had elective surgery afterwards.[13]
Rua left Chute Boxe in January 2008 and opened his own camp, Universidade da luta, with his brother Murilo in his hometown, Curitiba, Brazil.[14]
Rua's surgery forced him to drop out of UFC 85. Instead, he was granted a rematch with Mark Coleman at UFC 93 in Dublin, Ireland. Shogun defeated Coleman by TKO with 24 seconds left in the third round. The fight earned co-Fight of the Night honors and a $40,000 bonus. In spite of the award, Rua drew criticism for his lackluster performance against Coleman, who was 44 years old and had not competed in over two years.[15][16] Rua's next fight took place at UFC 97 in Montreal, Canada against former longtime UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Chuck Liddell. Shogun came into the fight in better shape than his last two outings, and knocked out Liddell in the first round with a devastating left hook followed by hammer fists. With this victory, Rua returned to the top-ten rankings for the light heavyweight division, and put him next in line for a shot at the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship.
At UFC 104 Shogun lost a unanimous decision to UFC light heavyweight champion Lyoto Machida. All three judges scored the bout 48-47 in favor of Machida. However, controversy arose with the decision as many notable MMA personalities felt that Shogun had won the fight. UFC President Dana White stated that he believed Shogun had outscored Machida in the 1st, 4th, and 5th round, thus winning the bout. Following the bout's end, White delivered a check to Rua for the full $250,000 he would have received if he had won the decision.[17]
When asked at the post-fight interviews, many notable MMA fighters felt that Rua had won the fight, including Quinton Jackson,[18] Thiago Silva,[19] Jon Jones,[20] Wanderlei Silva,[21][22] Vitor Belfort,[22] Antonio Silva,[22] Kenny Florian and Rashad Evans. Despite the great majority seeing Rua as the victor, Lyoto's teammate Anderson Silva and former Strikeforce Lightweight champion Josh Thomson stated that they felt Machida had won. Fightmetric analysis of the fight suggested that Rua had landed more blows to the legs than Machida.[23] According to CompuStrike, Shogun landed almost twice as many strikes as Machida did.[24]
Due to the controversy surrounding the decision, a rematch was immediately announced and took place at UFC 113 on May 8, 2010 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. In one of the most anticipated rematches in history, Rua won via knockout at 3:35 of round 1, after dropping Machida with a right and following up with punches on the ground, and was awarded the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship. Following the victory, Rua underwent surgery in June to repair a knee injured during the bout against Machida. UFC President Dana White officially confirmed that Rua's first title defense would be on March 19, 2011 against Rashad Evans, who had recently won a unanimous decision over Quinton Jackson.[25]
However, following Jon Jones' victory over Ryan Bader at UFC 126, it was announced that Evans had blown his knee out in training and would not be able to face Rua. Jones was told during his post-fight interview that the UFC wanted him to replace Evans against Rua for the Light Heavyweight Championship. Jones accepted and the fight which took place at UFC 128.[26] Rua later disclosed that Quinton Jackson was offered the title fight but declined, which Jackson confirmed, explaining the reasons he declined was due to the short notice; six weeks and because he would not be able to make weight.[27]
Rua lost the belt during his first title defense to Jon Jones. Jones was able to overwhelm Rua from start to finish beginning with a flying right knee to the head of Rua mere seconds into the first round. Rua would later attribute that first knee to greatly affecting his performance for the rest of the bout. [28] Despite a commendable effort from Rua to continue to bring the fight to Jones the fight ended when Jones landed a left punch to the gut of Rua quickly followed by a knee to the body which finally halted the bout at 2:37 into the third round. [29] According to CompuStrike, Jones landed 87 strikes in the contest and Rua just 13.[29][29]
A rematch with Forrest Griffin is expected to take place on August 27, 2011 at UFC 134.[30]
In preparation for his rematch against Forrest Griffin, Shogun will now reunite with his former Chute Boxe Academy coach, Rafael Cordeiro, and conduct his training camp for Griffin at Kings MMA.[31]
