3. He refuses to cut down to middleweight
Mired in a stretch of mediocre results, Rua has long been rumored to cut down to middleweight. His old enemy Lyoto Machida did just that in late 2013, picking up two wins over Mark Munoz and Gegard Mousasi to earn an exciting title fight with champion Chris Weidman.
Many believed Rua would benefit from losing the extra weight to enjoy a massive power advantage at 185 pounds. However, he’s steadfast in his belief that light heavyweight is his true home, so he’ll continue to fight much bigger fighters like St. Preux for better or for worse.
Rua’s conditioning has never been the strongest part of his game; in fact, he’s been highly criticized for gassing big fights and losing where he otherwise could have won. It also isn’t likely to improve as he gets older and injuries mount, so perhaps Rua doesn’t want to deplete his body by losing an extra 20 pounds. While he would have more power at middleweight, he could also be so drained that he would be unable to fight at even close to his full potential.
If he loses to “OSP this weekend, you can bet there will be endless cries of either a cut down to middleweight or for Shogun to retire altogether, and the fans making said requests probably wouldn’t be too far off base.
Rua has to do something to re-ignite his career this Saturday, but even then he’d be faced with a huge mountain to climb at 205 pounds.
