Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua and Brandon Vera fought in a gruelling war in the main event of ‘UFC On FOX 4’ this evening, with a game Vera finally being downed by ‘Shogun’ deep in the fourth round.
Vera came out throwing two hard kicks in the opening round. Shogun tried to return the favor, but missed.
‘Shogun’ then pulled off a surprise by securing a takedown and then holding the position in half guard. working methodically Rua was eventually able to move to side control, but Vera found space, backed up to the cage and wall-walked up to his feet.
Vera then went straight back to throwing kicks, unleashing two to the head.
Surprisingly ‘Shogun’ wasn’t keen to engage and instead looked for another takedown. Vera was ready for him though and fell back into a guillotine choke.
It looked fairly tight and Vera cranked harder on it but couldn’t force the tap and ‘Shogun’ escaped, instantly landing a couple of hard elbows.
He’s able to take Vera’s back, but can’t do much with the position and we’re headed to the second round.
‘Shogun’ comes out strong in the second, firing off hard strikes and Vera might be in trouble. To his credit ‘The Truth’ bites down on his gumshield and starts firing back, landing a nice elbow counter.
Rua continues to pour it on though and lands some knee strikes. Vera pushes forward bravely though and lands with a few shots of his own, even adding in a kick as he shows his will to succceed in this fight and gets a little bit of momentum going.
‘Shogun’ stops his progress with a right hook and then drags him down with a headlock. Vera gets back up sporting some damage under his left eye, but he’s still game for the fight and Rua is definitely tiring.
Having said that Vera is tired himself and he clinches against the cage as the crowd tries to cheer him on. He secures a trip takedown and gets on top, but he’s not got the energy to muster up a ground and pound assault, instead just appearing happy to keep the position until the end of the round.
Onto the third and it’s a fairly even round with Vera looking a little lighter on his feet and putting the occasional nice combination together, while Rua looked tired but still was landing the more damaging blows.
Later in the round ‘Shogun’ secured a takedown and was able to maintain the position, though Vera did a good job of ensuring he wasn’t able to do too much damage.
In the fourth Vera began well, mixing up punches, kicks and knees before the two men clinch up against the cage. There’s not too much going on but ‘Shogun’ works in a few knees, while Vera lands a couple of elbow strikes before being met with an uppercut.
It looks like these two tired fighters are heading to the final round as they continue to engage in a clinch battle, but with the last minute approaching ‘Shogun’ suddenly finds success with a couple of hooks, one of which knocks Vera’s gumshield half-way out of his mouth.
He tries to put it back into place, but ‘Shogun’ isn’t going to wait and fires off more punches and Vera sinks to the ground. More strikes follow and with Vera not defending himself the referee waves the fight off, handing ‘Shogun’ the win by TKO at 4.09mins of the fourth round.
