It has been rumored that Mauricio "Shogun" Rua will be fighting @ UFC76 on september 22nd 2007 in anaheim, his opponent right now is TBA, who do you think his first opponent will be inside the octagon. im hoping chuck, but i was wondering if any of you guys/gals had any thoughts on this.
I remember reading in an article that he has some weird contract that's for the UFC and Pride...I'll try to find it. I might have been dreaming though...
I doubt it'll be against any of the big named, but probably someone recognizable (I hope). Maybe Sam Hogar, Jason Lambert, Alessio Sakara. I'd throw out Keith Jardine, but I'm not sure he'll get clearance. But all you really need for a guy like this is a good intro fight to get the fans talking, then start pitting him against the big names.
Dana confirmed that Shogun will be fighting at UFC 76 against Lyoto Machida Source Not good to have 2 relatively unknown and basically undefeated fighters fight at this point in their careers. I think Lyoto has a good shot of derailing Shogun and if that happens, Dana will be left with a fairly boring winner as opposed to Shogun
Nice! good catch... thanks for the update. i know that alessio sakara has his hands full with houston alexander @ UFC 75 in london.
Shogun's losses really did happen. Yeah, one was early in his career and the other could reasonably be considered a fluke, but that's what happens. Good fighters aren't immune to losing.
I personally think that when(if) he fights Jackson for the belt it'll be a harder one to call than people think. Jackson seems to have improved alot, on paper he should have been a much tougher opponent for Shogun in 05. I think he's sorted his training out and will train especially for Shogun. It could be one of the best match-ups ever.
Jardine will be taken down pretty easy on this one I gather and Shogun will dismantle Griffin. I like Forrest but Shogun is a different class.
