Mauricio “Shogun” Rua proved why he is one of the most dangerous fighters in the world at UFC 134 by dominating Forrest Griffin en route to scoring a first round knockout.
Following Rua’s devastating loss to Jon Jones earlier this year, his career could have gone in one of two ways: It could have ruined him for the rest of his career or served as motivation to get better to earn another title shot.
Given the way that he dismantled Griffin on Saturday night, it is clear that Rua followed the latter path. The win was extra sweet for Rua, who lost to Griffin at UFC 76 when he made his debut with the promotion following the Zuffa acquisition of PRIDE.
In that fight, Griffin scored a submission victory late in the third round and he was able to parlay that victory into a light heavyweight title shot against Quinton Jackson, a fight which Griffin would go on to win.
On the UFC Countdown special that aired on Spike TV this week, Rua said that he wasn’t mentally prepared for that first fight and took it lightly.
There was no doubt that he was prepared to fight this time around, and those nagging injuries that kept him out of action for 10 months between May 2010 and March 2011 are completely healthy now.
Rua made Griffin, who is still a top 10 light heavyweight, look like a sparring partner. He connected with a right hand that sent Griffin down to the mat and Rua pounced on him right away with hammer fists. Griffin was on Dream Street after the fourth one and the referee called a stop to the fight.
It was a huge victory for Rua, who needed the win to stay close to title contention – though he will likely need to win at least one more fight before he earns a shot – and he was able to avenge his first loss as a UFC fighter in the process.
