On the verge of being bounced from the top 10 light heavyweight rankings, Mauricio “Shogun” Rua needed a big win over James Te Huna at UFC Fight Night 33.
He responded in a huge way, brutally stopping Te Huna with a left hook one minute into the opening round. As Te Huna lunged in with a left uppercut, Rua countered with a short left hook to the chin of his opponent, who folded to the canvas.
Coming off of losses to Alexander Gustafsson and Chael Sonnen, Rua appeared to be declining quickly. However, with a vintage performance on Friday, he proved he still has more left in the tank and isn’t ready to give up his position among the elite 205-pound fighters right now.
Like Shogun, Te Huna entered UFC Fight Night 33 coming off of a loss. The Australian was submitted by Glover Teixeira in May and hoped to turn things around drastically by beating a former UFC champion in Rua. Instead, he is now looking at two straight losses. He’ll be getting a step down in competition in his next outing and could suddenly be fighting for his UFC job.
Below are the results from the entire UFC Fight Night 33 fight card.
Fox Sports 1 Main Card
- Mark Hunt and Antonio Silva fought to a majority draw.
- Mauricio Rua defeated James Te Huna by (T)KO in the first round.
- Ryan Bader defeated Anthony Perosh by unanimous decision.
- Soa Palelei defeated Pat Barry by (T)KO in the first round.
- Clint Hester defeated Dylan Andrews by (T)KO in the second round.
- Bethe Correia defeated Julie Kedzie by split decision.
Fox Sports 2 Prelims
- Takeya Mizugaki defeated Nam Phan by unanimous decision.
- Caio Magalhaes defeated Nick Ring by unanimous decision.
- Justin Scoggins defeated Richie Vaculik by (T)KO in the first round.
- Krzysztof Jotko defeated Bruno Santos by unanimous decision.
Online Prelims
- Alex Garcia defeated Ben Wall by (T)KO in the first round.
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