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Light heavyweight veterans Mauricio Rua and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira will have their third fight in May on a PPV card rumored to be headlined by Henry Cejudo vs. Jose Aldo.
15 years after their first encounter, light heavyweight veterans Mauricio Rua and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira will meet for the third time. Per ESPN’s Brett Okamoto, Dana White has announced that the pair will face each other at UFC 250, on May 9. It’s the rare trilogy bout where the same fighter won both the first two pairings, with ‘Shogun’ Rua walking away the victor each time.
When they first met, at PRIDE Critical Countdown, in June 2005, their battle became legendary, going down in history as one of MMA’s all-time classic wars. So much so that – 10 years later, in August 2015 – the pair met once again, at UFC 190. It was another great battle, with both men picking up a ‘Fight of the Night’ bonus and Rua claiming another unanimous decision.
Now, Mauricio Rua (26-11-1) will look to recover from a split draw against Paul Craig in his last fight, back in November of last year. Before that, the 38-year-old scored a TKO victory against Tyson Pedro, in December 2018. Shogun’s last loss came in July 2018, when he was knocked out by Anthony Smith.
Away from the Octagon since May 2019, when he was knocked out by Ryan Spann, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (23-9) will look for his first win since a September 2018 TKO victory against Sam Alvey. Before the win, the 44-year-old also suffered a TKO defeat to Ryan Bader, in November 2016.
UFC 250 will take place in Sao Paulo, Brazil in May. And while the headlining bout hasn’t been made official, there are strong rumors that the card will be topped by a bantamweight title fight between Henry Cejudo and former featherweight King Jose Aldo.