Mauricio “Shogun” Rua was pulled from a planned with with Rashad Evans on next month’s UFC on Fox 19 event after a knee injury flared up in training. It was the UFC’s call to pull him from the fight despite his desire to fight through, and now he’s got a new bout lined up.
According to a report from MMAFighting.com, the UFC is now targeting Rua for a fight against Ultimate Fighter winner Corey Anderson at UFC 198 in Brazil in May.
Rua, the former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion, snapped a two fight losing streak in his last fight, defeating Antonio Rogerio Nogueira by decision at UFC 190. The Evans bout was a fight originally scheduled as a title fight in 2011 before Evans’ own injury, and now that the attempt to book it five years later has fallen through, Rua will take the less high profile matchup, albeit one back in his home town of Curitiba.
For Anderson, who edged past Tom Lawlor in a questionable decision at UFC 196 earlier this month, it will be his highest profile fight to date. The 26-year-old is 5-1 overall since entering the UFC out of TUF 17, and has won three straight fights over Jan Blachowicz, Fabio Maldonado, and Lawlor.
UFC 198 hits the Arena da Baixada stadium on May 14, airing live on pay-per-view with a UFC Heavyweight Championship main event between Fabricio Werdum and Stipe Miocic.
[Mauricio “Shogun” Rua art by Grant Gould (c) MMATorch.com]
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