Mauricio Rua did his best. Unfortunately, his best wasn’t good enough.
That’s according to “Shogun,” who insists he did everything right in the weeks leading up to his Anthony Smith fight, which took place in the UFC Fight Night 134 main event on FOX Sports 1 last Sunday (July 22, 2018) in Hamburg, Germany.
Rua was crushed by way of first-round knockout.
“Unfortunately, we don’t always get the result we want, and to understand that fact is part of life,” Rua wrote on Instagram. “Congratulations to Anthony Smith. For so many times I was celebrating at this moment and I can’t take his merits from him. I dedicated myself, trained hard, and did all that was within my reach for this fight, but he was better yesterday. Life continues, thank you all for the support.”
Life continues … but does mixed martial arts (MMA)?
Watching Rua go down in flames, which at age 36 marks the eighth time he’s been finished in his career, I could not help but hearken back to promotion president Dana White’s concern that “Shogun” had nothing left to offer at 205 pounds.
There certainly wasn’t anything on display in Hamburg to convince me otherwise and Rua would not be the first ex-champ to face his own mortality. Let’s just hope this latest loss was a setback and not the beginning of the end.