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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Mauricio "Shogun" Rua has had his fair share of highs and lows throughout his MMA career, but the biggest high in his UFC run was his second fight against Lyoto Machida in May of 2010. Just seven months earlier, Rua had lost a decision to Machida that most felt was unjust, and in the rematch he took became the first person to defeat Machida when he stopped him in the first.
The win is even bigger for him in retrospect, as he revealed in an interview with Fighter's Only that he was nearly forced out of the bout due to a burst appendix in training camp.
"Remembering my glories is wonderful, makes me feel good, and gives me more will to live up to that again," Rua said. "It was an indescribable sensation, there are no words for it, especially because I got to achieve the dream of any fighter, which was to be both a UFC and Pride FC champion."
"I had burst my appendix two months before the fight. I recall that my team would rather I didn't fight at the time, they wanted to rest but I said no. I was almost a month without training, in order to heal up. I had to undergo surgery but I still managed to finish the camp - and the outcome was great."
Penick's Analysis: Shogun's two fights with Machida gave him new life in the UFC, and proved at that time that he was able to compete with the elite in the division. Unfortunately, he had even more injury issues out of the Machida fight, and lost the title in his return fight to Jon Jones. He's continued the up and down string by avenging a loss to Forrest Griffin and defeating Brandon Vera before losing to Alexander Gustafsson, and his time at the top is likely at an end. But he can look back to that fight and hold his head high for accomplishing something that few have.
[Mauricio "Shogun" Rua art by Grant Gould (c) MMATorch.com]
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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