Chael Sonnen and Mauricio “Shogun” Rua come together to headline a fairly-stacked UFC Fight Night 26 card to kick off Fox Sports 1 in style. This fight is critical to both fighters.
Rua has been alternating wins and losses since 2009, and he has looked worse and worse in each consecutive fight. To his credit, he realized this and shook up his camp in a big way. At 31, Shogun still likely has a few years left in him, but we’ll have to see if his 11-year career has taken too much out of him at this point.
Meanwhile, Sonnen is looking to post his first win since beating Michael Bisping over a year ago. Sonnen, in spite of his age, has robotic cardio and some of the best wrestling in the UFC. He’ll be looking to begin his climb back to title contention with a win over Rua.