Archive for the 'Mauricio Rua' Category

Pictured: Phil Davis, who is among the prospects to challenge new light heavyweight kingpin Jon Jones in the future. Davis fights Antônio Rogério Nogueira tonight at UFC Fight Night in Seattle.

Jon Jones looked amazing last Saturday night. There was a feeling of destiny in the air as the young New Yorker made his way to the Octagon, from a pretty good (considering this was a New Jersey crowd) reaction from the UFC faithful. Then he stepped into the cage and beat seven bells out of a man considered by many to be among the top five fighters on the planet. Even the most hardcore Jones-o-phile couldn’t have foreseen just how dominant their favourite would be as he stepped dominated Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua in every aspect of the game, out working him standing and against the cage and destroying him with some young Tito Ortiz-esque ground and pound from inside the guard. When the fight finally finished, there was no doubt who the victor was, and no doubt that he deserves his spot in the sun atop the 205 lbs rankings. But for how long?

The Light Heavyweight weight class has always been a competitive one, and no sooner had Jon Jones hand been raised than the sharks, scenting blood, began to gather:

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Picture: Jon Jones throws a left roundhouse kick at Mauricio “Shogun” Rua.

At 2:37 into the third round, Mauricio “Shogun” Rua was stopped by the relentless attacks of Jon “Bones” Jones. Jones captured the UFC Light Heavyweight title at age 23 making him the youngest champion in UFC history.

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Pictured: Mauricio “Shogun” Rua and Jon Jones at the UFC 128 weigh in today. Photo from TheFightNerd.com.

Welcome to another installment of Fight of the Week, or, let’s try this again, shall we? Following the disappointment of last week’s debacle, as Ferrid Kheder refused to weigh in vs. Toby Imada, and our fight of the week turned into a dud — we brilliantly waited for the weigh-ins to post the breakdown for this week’s selection.

As you can see, or maybe not from the photo as everyone looks hilariously unenthused — we have been rewarded. The fight is indeed on, tomorrow night in New Jersey for UFC 128 — as rising star Jon Jones challenges for the UFC Light Heavyweight title against champion Mauricio “Shogun” Rua. It’s Jones, the guy who looks better every time against Rua, the veteran who has proven it all against everybody — but maybe hasn’t seen anything like the phenom in front of him. Quite the fascintating matchup, with the betting odds perhaps surprisingly favoring the young challenger.

Weighing in from Total-MMA staff tonight are Jose Fernandez (JF), Robert Visnick (RV), and George Do (GD).

As always, our predictions are for entertainment purposes only, so don’t blame us if you bet away your savings and end up selling your assets to your most bitter competitor, like our friends in Strikeforce MMA… ugh, speaking of debacles don’t get me started on that one again. I couldn’t believe no one on MMA Live last night on ESPN could show the gumption to call it what it is.

Anyway… heck of a fight on the way. Our analysis:

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Pictured: Lyoto “The Dragon” Machida celebrates his 2008 victory over Tito Ortiz. Machida defends his title for the second time against Mauricio Rua tomorrow night.

The clock is ticking on one of the most anticipated UFC rematches in recent memory.  The first fight resulted in a controversial decision- one that most fans thought that Rua had won, and also saw the aura of “unbeatable” that Machida had developed slowly disappear round by round.

For all of Machida’s praises as being elusive and a master strategist, it was actually Rua that that was the elusive one in the first fight and the one who seemed to have finally developed a solid strategy and possibly solved the puzzle that is Machida.  The question that is on most fans’ minds now is whether Rua can be at a minimum equally as effective in the rematch.

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How have you weathered these thirty days since Kazuhiro Nakamura’s untimely release from his UFC contract, friends? Have you felt adrift? I admit that I have, a little. But I have found some measure of comfort in this disproportionate career retrospective of ours, and I hope you have as well. Disproportionate career retrospectives comforteth like sunshine after rain, it is said, and I hope this has been as true for you as it has been for me.

When we began our look back, we proceeded from three essential Kazuhiro Nakamura truths: (i) that he came to mixed martial arts from a fine career as a judo player, holding championships in international B and C level tournaments, and an impressive third-place showing in the 2001 Japanese national championships; (ii) that he managed to adapt his judo nage waza or throwing techniques to mixed martial arts better than some others (such as his training partner Hidehiko Yoshida or Polish judo legend/walking pharmacy Pawe? Nastula) who possess far more impressive judo credentials; and (iii) that while he has competed well against the best light heavyweight competition this sport has to offer, he has always been on the outside of that group looking in, never quite able to make the leap from his division’s second tier into its highest ranks. Despite having more going for him than most on the level of technique, both grappling and striking, Nakamura has never really turned out to be what it looked like he could be. Imagine Bas Rutten’s disappointment, and what the burden of that must feel like.

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By: Bill Thompson

This week I figured I’d delve into a big match-up that was been announced for the future. Nothing elaborate, but I will give a few thoughts into the fight, the impact it will have on the individual fighters, and their futures in the light heavyweight division. Without further ado, let’s take a look ahead

Chuck Liddell vs. Mauricio Rua

This match-up was just announced for UFC 85, and it is a fight a few years in the making. As soon as Mauricio “Shogun” Rua went on his tear through the Pride middleweight, our version of light heavyweight, grand prix in 2005 his name skyrocketed to the top of the light heavyweight ranks. Also around this time Chuck Liddell was in the middle of running through Jeremy Horn, Tito Ortiz, Randy Couture, and Renato Sobral to cement himself at the top of the light heavyweight mountain. In some places the argument over whether Rua was number one or Liddell was number one boiled down to the infantile “Pride is better than the UFC/UFC is better than Pride” line of thinking. However in most intelligent conversations there wasn’t a clear cut answer to the question because both men had proven themselves to be among the best in the sport. The only clear way to solve the debate was for the two men to square off, something not thought possible until the day that Pride was bought out by Zuffa, parent company of UFC. Unfortunately for both men their careers did not continue down the dominant path. Liddell was knocked out by Quinton Jackson and decisioned by Keith Jardine in consecutive fights, while Shogun was thoroughly manhandled and eventually choked out by Forrest Griffin in his one and only UFC bout to date. Liddell managed to bounce back from his setbacks with a decision win over another top light heavyweight in Wanderlei Silva. Then came the announcement this past week that these two would finally be facing off, a few years and fights too late, but a marquee match-up none the less.

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