Murilo “Ninja” Rua was just as shocked as nearly every MMA fan in the world when his brother Mauricio “Shogun” Rua was forced to tap out to Chael Sonnen at UFC Fight Night 26.
Murilo spoke to MMA Fighting about the loss and believes it can be credited to some issues within Mauricio’s camp.
I was surprised. In my opinion, Mauricio played the wrong game. He should’ve moved more to avoid the takedowns. Fighting on half guard against a wrestler isn’t a good strategy. He should have brought Chael to his guard when he got taken down, tried to sweep him or land some punches. But Sonnen got his neck, unfortunately.
Getting caught in a submission hold is a mistake anyone can make on any given night. The loss dropped Mauricio to 5-6 in the UFC and marked the first time he’d suffered back-to-back losses in his professional career. Worse yet, Mauricio lost to a fighter many consider to be outside the top 10 in rankings and who was coming off consecutive losses himself.
Still, Murilo believes his brother can turn everything around by making some changes within his camp.
“He has a lot of shady persons around him, people trying to take advantage of him,” he said. “People from his camp said I wasn’t good for Mauricio because I made him nervous when I was on his corner, and he listened to that, so I decided to leave. If something is wrong I would point it out, I wouldn’t just lie to please him.”
Mauricio has changed camps, coaches and management teams a number of times during his UFC tenure. So far none of them have provided “Shogun” with the magic formula for continued success.
What Murilo is making it sound like is Mauricio being in a BJ Penn-like situation. Penn’s camp has come under fire in recent times for being nothing more than yes-men and not giving the Hawaiian a training camp to improve as a fighter.
Of course, there’s also the fact that “Shogun” has gone through multiple knee surgeries along with countless wars inside the Octagon and over in Pride. His body is quite older than what his birth certificate would lead you to believe. Sonnen also happened to be a terrible stylistic match up for the Brazilian as well.
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