Tag: Shogun Rua

UFC Rankings Update: Anthony Smith Surges Up LHW List

Is this high enough for Anthony Smith?

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The official UFC rankings have been updated after last week’s (Sun., July 22, 2018) UFC Fight Night 134 from Hamburg, Germany, and not surprisingly, Anthony Smith was the main benefactor.

The surging “Lionheart” brutally knocked out former champion Shogun Rua in the main event, earning the former middleweight the No. 9 spot in his debut on the light heavyweight ranks. Rua dropped three spots to No. 11 for the defeat.

Also at 205 pounds, Corey Anderson rose three spots to No. 6 when he secured the biggest win of his career over former No. 3 Glover Teixeira, who dropped five spots to No. 8. Ilir Latifi, Jan Blachowicz, and Jimi Manuwa all rose one spot to Nos. 3, 4, and 5 respectively.

At pound-for-pound, Conor McGregor inexplicably rose one spot to tie sidelined featherweight champion Max Holloway despite not fighting in the UFC since late 2016, perhaps a product of the thought he may return to action after clearing up his Brooklyn legal trouble this week.

You can check out the fully updated UFC rankings courtesy of UFC.com right here:

POUND-FOR-POUND
1 Daniel Cormier
2 Demetrious Johnson
3 Max Holloway
3 Conor McGregor +1
5 Georges St-Pierre
6 TJ Dillashaw
7 Tyron Woodley
8 Stipe Miocic
9 Khabib Nurmagomedov
10 Robert Whittaker
11 Cris Cyborg
12 Tony Ferguson
13 Amanda Nunes
14 Cody Garbrandt
15 Rose Namajunas

FLYWEIGHT
Champion: Demetrious Johnson
1 Henry Cejudo
2 Sergio Pettis
3 Joseph Benavidez
4 Ray Borg
5 Jussier Formiga
6 John Moraga
7 Wilson Reis
8 Alexandre Pantoja
9 Dustin Ortiz
10 Brandon Moreno -1
11 Ben Nguyen
12 Matheus Nicolau
13 Tim Elliott
14 Deiveson Figueiredo
15 Ulka Sasaki

BANTAMWEIGHT
Champion: TJ Dillashaw
1 Cody Garbrandt
2 Dominick Cruz
3 Raphael Assuncao
4 Marlon Moraes
5 Jimmie Rivera
6 John Lineker
7 John Dodson
8 Aljamain Sterling
9 Pedro Munhoz
10 Cody Stamann
11 Rob Font
12 Alejandro Perez
13 Thomas Almeida
14 Brett Johns
15 Douglas Silva de Andrade

FEATHERWEIGHT
Champion: Max Holloway
1 Brian Ortega
2 Jose Aldo
3 Frankie Edgar
4 Jeremy Stephens
5 Cub Swanson
6 Josh Emmett
6 Chad Mendes +1
8 Mirsad Bektic
9 Chan Sung Jung
10 Renato Moicano
11 Alexander Volkanovski
12 Ricardo Lamas
13 Darren Elkins
14 Yair Rodriguez +1
15 Zabit Magomedsharipov -1

LIGHTWEIGHT
Champion: Khabib Nurmagomedov
1 Tony Ferguson
2 Conor McGregor
3 Eddie Alvarez
4 Dustin Poirier
5 Kevin Lee
6 Edson Barboza
7 Justin Gaethje
8 Anthony Pettis
9 Nate Diaz
10 Al Iaquinta
11 James Vick
12 Michael Chiesa
13 Alexander Hernandez
14 Dan Hooker
15 Francisco Trinaldo

WELTERWEIGHT
Champion: Tyron Woodley
1 Colby Covington (Interim Champion)
2 Darren Till
3 Rafael Dos Anjos
4 Stephen Thompson
5 Robbie Lawler
6 Kamaru Usman
7 Demian Maia
8 Neil Magny
9 Jorge Masvidal
10 Santiago Ponzinibbio
11 Leon Edwards
12 Donald Cerrone
13 Gunnar Nelson
14 Alex Oliveira
15 Dong Hyun Kim

MIDDLEWEIGHT
Champion: Robert Whittaker
1 Yoel Romero
2 Luke Rockhold
3 Chris Weidman
4 Kelvin Gastelum
5 Jacare Souza
6 Derek Brunson
7 David Branch
8 Paulo Costa
9 Israel Adesanya
10 Brad Tavares
11 Antonio Carlos Junior
12 Uriah Hall
13 Thiago Santos
14 Elias Theodorou
15 Krzysztof Jotko

LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT
Champion: Daniel Cormier
1 Alexander Gustafsson
2 Volkan Oezdemir
3 Ilir Latifi +1
4 Jan Blachowicz +1
5 Jimi Manuwa +1
6 Corey Anderson +3
7 Ovince Saint Preux
8 Glover Teixeira -5
9 Anthony Smith *NR
10 Misha Cirkunov
11 Mauricio Rua -3
12 Dominick Reyes -1
13 Patrick Cummins -1
14 Tyson Pedro -1
15 Gadzhimurad Antigulov -1

HEAVYWEIGHT
Champion: Daniel Cormier
1 Stipe Miocic
2 Derrick Lewis
3 Curtis Blaydes
4 Francis Ngannou
5 Alexander Volkov
6 Alistair Overeem
7 Junior Dos Santos
8 Mark Hunt
9 Marcin Tybura
10 Tai Tuivasa
11 Aleksei Oleinik
12 Andrei Arlovski
13 Stefan Struve
14 Shamil Abdurakhimov
15 Justin Willis

WOMEN’S STRAWWEIGHT
Champion: Rose Namajunas
1 Joanna Jedrzejczyk
2 Jessica Andrade
3 Claudia Gadelha
4 Karolina Kowalkiewicz
5 Tecia Torres
6 Carla Esparza
7 Michelle Waterson
8 Felice Herrig
9 Tatiana Suarez
10 Cortney Casey
11 Alexa Grasso
12 Randa Markos
13 Nina Ansaroff
14 Joanne Calderwood
15 Angela Hill

WOMEN’S FLYWEIGHT
Champion: Nicco Montano
1 Valentina Shevchenko
2 Sijara Eubanks
3 Alexis Davis
4 Liz Carmouche
5 Roxanne Modafferi
6 Lauren Murphy
7 Katlyn Chookagian
8 Jessica Eye
9 Barb Honchak
10 Jessica-Rose Clark
11 Ashlee Evans-Smith
12 Andrea Lee
13 Mara Romero Borella
14 Montana De La Rosa
15 Paige VanZant

WOMEN’S BANTAMWEIGHT
Champion: Amanda Nunes
1 Holly Holm
2 Ketlen Vieira
3 Julianna Pena
4 Raquel Pennington
5 Germaine de Randamie
6 Cat Zingano
7 Marion Reneau
8 Sara McMann
9 Aspen Ladd
10 Bethe Correia
11 Lina Lansberg
12 Irene Aldana
13 Lucie Pudilova
14 Sarah Moras
15 Gina Mazany

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Anthony Smith Accuses Cormier Of Holding Up LHW Division

Anthony Smith doesn’t want to see the 205-pound division held up.

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This past weekend (Sun. July 22, 2018) in Hamburg, Germany, Anthony Smith surged up the ladder in the UFC light heavyweight division when he defeated former 205-pound champ Mauricio “Shogun” Rua.

Smith obliterated Rua in the first round by knockout. He made a case for UFC light heavyweight title contention with the victory or a title eliminator fight at the very least. Prior to the fight there were rumblings of Rua getting a crack at UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier with a potential victory.

Cormier is a double UFC champion at the moment as he holds the heavyweight and light heavyweight titles. There is worry amongst the 205-pound weight class that due to Cormier’s dealings with Brock Lesnar it could hold up the light heavyweight title picture.

Smith spoke on the matter after his win over Rua and said Cormier shouldn’t do the dishonorable thing and hold up the division (quotes via Bloody Elbow):

“The top of the division is a disaster right now,” Smith said. “‘Shogun’ was supposed to be next and now he’s not. No one knows what’s going on with Cormier. I think that that’s the first step, we need to figure out if Cormier’s staying or going.

“I’ve said this before, I think that Daniel is an honorable man and it wouldn’t be a very honorable thing to do to hold up the division. He knows right now. You guys could ask him 100 times and he won’t tell you, but he knows if he’s coming back down or not, and I think that he needs to make that public so we can figure out what we’re all doing.”

After his UFC heavyweight title victory over Stipe Miocic at UFC 226, Cormier had a physical confrontation with Lesnar inside the Octagon. UFC President Dana White noted that Cormier vs. Lesnar will be the next UFC heavyweight title bout to take place.

Lesnar isn’t eligible to fight until January. Cormier could either get a light heavyweight title defense in during that time or simply sit out until his eventual collision with “The Beast.”

It should be interesting to see how Cormier’s scenario plays out, and how it affects the light heavyweight division in the process.

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Shogun Rua Reacts To Brutal UFC Hamburg Loss To Anthony Smith

Last night (Sun. July 22, 2018) former UFC light heavyweight champion Mauricio “Shogun” Rua’s dreams of perhaps re-capturing 205-pound gold went up in smoke. The Brazilian was stopped in the first round by Anthony Smith by way of brut…

Last night (Sun. July 22, 2018) former UFC light heavyweight champion Mauricio “Shogun” Rua’s dreams of perhaps re-capturing 205-pound gold went up in smoke. The Brazilian was stopped in the first round by Anthony Smith by way of brutal knockout. Smith will likely climb up the ladder to take on a tougher tier of competition, […]

The post Shogun Rua Reacts To Brutal UFC Hamburg Loss To Anthony Smith appeared first on MMA News.

Shogun Rua Breaks Silence On UFC Hamburg Loss

Shogun Rua has spoken.

The post Shogun Rua Breaks Silence On UFC Hamburg Loss appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

Shogun Rua has broken his silence on his latest loss inside of the Octagon under the UFC banner.

Rua was expected to fight former title contender Volkan Oezdemir at the UFC Hamburg event but that fight got scrapped once it was revealed that Oezdemir was removed from his headliner role against Rua, which led to the UFC booking him against Anthony Smith and during the lead up to this fight, Rua went on record by stating that he believed that he was close to a title shot if he was able to beat Smith especially since UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier recently stated that he would be interested in a fight with Rua but obviously those hopes have been shattered.

As seen in the main event of UFC Hamburg (also known as UFC Fight Night 134) that took place on Sunday, July 22, 2018, at Barclaycard Arena in Hamburg, Germany, Smith was able to score a KO win over the former UFC light heavyweight champion after landing some brutal shots in 89 seconds with a flurry of punches and a vicious elbow that left him unconscious.

Just hours after this fight was over, which snapped Rua’s three fight winning streak, the former UFC and PRIDE champion took to his official Instagram account to issue the following statement on the fight:

”Unfortunately we don’t always get the result we want, and to understand that fact is part of life,” Rua wrote. “Congratulations to Anthony Smith. For so many times I was celebrating at this moment and I can’t take his merits from him. I dedicated myself, trained hard, and did all that was within my reach for this fight, but he was better yesterday. Life continues, thank you all for the support.”

Infelizmente nem sempre a gente tem o resultado que gostaria, e entender isso faz parte da vida. Parabéns ao Anthony Smith. Por tantas e tantas vezes eu estive comemorando nesse momento e não posso tirar o mérito dele. Me dediquei, treinei muito, e fiz tudo que estava ao meu alcance pra essa luta, mas ele foi melhor nessa noite. A vida continua, obrigado pelo carinho de todos. Unfortunately we don’t always get the result we want, and to understand that fact is part of life. Congratulations to Anthony Smith. For so many times I was celebrating at this moment and I can’t take his merits from him. I dedicated myself, trained hard, and did all that was within my reach for this fight, but he was better yesterday. Life continues, thank you all for the support.

A post shared by Shogun Rua (@shogunoficial) on

It will be interesting to see where Rua goes from here but it’s a safe bet that it won’t be against Daniel Cormier for the UFC light heavyweight title.

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Highlights: Anthony Smith Knocks Out Shogun Rua In Hamburg

Watch Anthony Smith demolish Shogun Rua at UFC Hamburg.

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Rising UFC contender Anthony Smith scored the biggest win of his mixed martial arts career today.

After knocking out Rashad Evans at Junes UFC 225, Smith picked up another victory over a former champion when he ran through Shogun Rua in the main event of today’s (Sun., July 22, 2018) UFC Fight Night 134 from the Barclaycard Arena in Hamburg, Germany.

It took him only one minute and 29 seconds as well. “Lionheart” hit Rua with a right hand early, opening up a spot for him to front-kick the all-time great in the face, and from then on it was all she wrote. Smith pushed forward with a powerful barrage of punches, landing seemingly at will until he backed Rua up to the fence and finished him with an absolutely massive elbow on the temple.

Watch the dominant stoppage here:

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Highlights: Anthony Smith Knocks Out Shogun Rua In Hamburg

Watch Anthony Smith demolish Shogun Rua at UFC Hamburg.

The post Highlights: Anthony Smith Knocks Out Shogun Rua In Hamburg appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

Rising UFC contender Anthony Smith scored the biggest win of his mixed martial arts career today.

After knocking out Rashad Evans at Junes UFC 225, Smith picked up another victory over a former champion when he ran through Shogun Rua in the main event of today’s (Sun., July 22, 2018) UFC Fight Night 134 from the Barclaycard Arena in Hamburg, Germany.

It took him only one minute and 29 seconds as well. “Lionheart” hit Rua with a right hand early, opening up a spot for him to front-kick the all-time great in the face, and from then on it was all she wrote. Smith pushed forward with a powerful barrage of punches, landing seemingly at will until he backed Rua up to the fence and finished him with an absolutely massive elbow on the temple.

Watch the dominant stoppage here:

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