Sunday, August 28, 2011

UFC 134 Results: Is Shogun Rua Ready to Get His Title Back?

On Saturday night, Mauricio "Shogun" Rua (20-5) decimated consensus top 10 light heavyweight, Forrest Griffin (18-7) in only 1:53.

Rua's fight against Griffin was his first fight since losing the light heavyweight title to Jon "Bones" Jones at UFC 128.

So now, after seeing this total devastation, is Shogun ready to win back the title from Jones?

Anybody who watched the first fight between Jones and Shogun would be quick to say "no freaking way," but there's a little more to it than what happened in the first fight.

The first time they faced off, Shogun had been out of action for 10 months, and ring rust was a big factor. Shogun just didn't look like himself that night.

The other factor working for Shogun was that he only had a short time to prepare for Jones.

Shogun was originally prepping for Rashad Evans, who is 5'11'', has a 75" reach, and is a wrestling first based fighter.

Jones is 6'4", has an 84.5" reach, and is all about the ground and pound.

Not exactly the same animal.

Should Shogun have a full camp, and the experience of having faced Jones once, he stands a much better chance of de-railing the Jon Jones hype train and winning back the belt.

That said, most people out there would still give Shogun next to no chance of defeating Jones.

Jones just has too many weapons at his disposal, and would do exactly what he did in the first fight: take Shogun down, beat him up and finish him as soon as he could.

Shogun's next fight will likely be a No. 1 contender fight, potentially against Lyoto Machida.

For the latest news on everything MMA, follow me on twitter @tmt2393.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

Source: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/824291-ufc-134-results-is-shogun-rua-ready-to-get-his-title-back

Jonathan Wiezorek Pete Williams Matt Wiman Travis Wiuff

No comments:

Post a Comment