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22/10/09 - Shogun warns "Never bet against me"
Call me the underdog, but never bet against me - that is the message that Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua has for fans, foes and bookmakers alike as he heads into a title challenge against UFC light-heavyweight don Lyoto Machida this Saturday at UFC 104.
“Machida is the champion and starts favourite and that is right. Maybe it is a good thing, because I haven’t lost as an underdog. I think maybe that’s because I fight better when I am not under the pressure, and now all the pressure is off of me and on the champion,” he said in the early hours of this morning.
“It is what it is, with the bookmakers, I don’t care what the odds are, just what I am going to do in the fight.”
Shogun cites his last fight as a perfect example of the bookmakers writing him off, then being served a jumbo portion of humble pie.
“I think a lot of people thought Chuck Liddell was going to knock me out but I proved that I am not finished and my best performances are in the future,” he said. “It is funny and surprising to hear people say I beat an old man (Liddell) to get my title shot because these same people, before that fight, were saying I was going to get killed!”
Nonetheless, there are few people who would say Liddell in his current form presents the kind of threat that Machida does. Undefeated in his 16 fight career, Machida has knocked out two previously undefeated fighters in his last two outings, and seemingly with ease.
For Shogun, the answer is strategy and tactics. “I am focused on the strategy we have come up with. I will keep to that plan because we have looked at his style and found a strategy we believe will defeat his style,” he explained.
“I have a strategy, and he will too, but a fight is a fight and when things happen you have to react to things going a different way. Maybe the person who adapts to things quicker will win and that is where my greater experience may help me.”
“Lyoto comes from that karate background and has translated his karate into a style which works very well in MMA. It is a rare style, but there are things he does which I have seen before. Even in my last fight, Chuck Liddell was a counter puncher like Lyoto so there are aspects of what he does which aren’t so different. Eventually, his style will be solved and I believe I will be the one to solve it.”
Rua is going into this fight not with the hanging head of a man already beaten, as some might expect, but with the attitude that he will win and the victory will spark a new golden age for him.
“The UFC will see the best Shogun on Saturday. Not the best since PRIDE, but the best ever. Professionally and personally, I am at my peak now, this is the best time of my life. I’ve got much more experience than I had when I was in PRIDE,” he stated.
“The knee injuries [last year], two surgeries back to back, were a dark time in my life. There were times when it was very bad for me, especially when I had another surgery right as I wanted to start training again. But things happen in life and you have to come through them stronger.
“I’ve not shown the best of myself in the UFC yet, but this is the perfect time to do that. I am 100 percent, I am healthy.”
John Joe O’Regan
John.fightersonly@gmail.com
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