Despite losing four of his past five fights, including getting starched by up-and-comer Ovince St. Preux at UFC Fight Night 56 on Saturday, Mauricio Rua says he’s going to soldier on.
In a Facebook post directed to his fans, “Shogun,” one of the most famed competitors to step inside the Pride ring, said he is going to take some time off to regroup and consider switching weight classes.
I made a techincal [sic] mistake, maybe due to anxiety and a big will to get this win in Brazil in such an important moment of my career, and I paid the price. Props to St. Preux, It’s part of the game and he deserved the win.
Now I will rest, enjoy my family and then think about my next steps, TUF Brazil, maybe a weight class change, but I’ll keep on going cause winning is easy, but keep on battling and overcome the obstacles is what makes a true fighter. Thank you all for the support.
Rua, who has 32 professional fights under his belt, suffered the quickest knockout of his career this weekend when OSP needed just 34 seconds to put him down and out.
The revered Brazilian striker had nothing for the Strikeforce import, getting dropped to the canvas with a left hook, and he got caught coming in, swinging a big overhand right.
Before Rua could even consider trying to recover, St. Preux swarmed him with vicious ground-and-pound, giving referee Mario Yamasaki no choice but to call it a fight.
After recording a stellar 12-1 ledger under the Pride banner between October 2003 and February 2007, Rua has since compiled a paltry 6-8 mark inside the Octagon.
Rua, who turns 33 on November 25, is a career light heavyweight who captured championship gold in both Pride and the UFC though has always been on the smaller side of the weight class.
Therefore, a drop to 185 pounds is certainly not out of the question. The real question is, will it make a difference in how he performs on fight night?
John Heinis is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. He is also the MMA editor for eDraft.com.
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