Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua suffered a tough 34 second TKO loss to Ovince St. Preux in front of his home fans in Brazil at UFC Fight Night 56 on Saturday night, but the former light-heavyweight champion has vowed to continue fighting.
In a statement to his fans, the 32 year-old expressed his disappointment at the outcome, showing particular regret for not having had an opportunity to show what he was capable of at a pivotal moment in his career.
Nonetheless, he says he’s going to continue fighting, and hinted that he may be considering moving weight class as he looks to kickstart his career again.
Presumably that would mean a trip down to 185lbs, a division that’s already stacked with Brazilian stars, with Anderson Silva, ‘Jacare’ Souza, Vitor Belfort and Lyoto Machida all currently occupying four of the top five contender spots.
Read ‘Shogun’s’ full statement below.
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“I want to have my thanks registered here for all the support on my fight Saturday Night. I want to also thank you guys for all the showings of care and support after the fight.
Losing is always very bad, hurts a lot, but what’s hurting more is to lose without being able to show what I trained, and what I know. Fighting is fighting, and I know very well that in this weight class any punch that connects early on can cost a huge price. For many times in my career I was in the happy side and unfortunately this time I faced the sad side of this story. I know a lot of people will unload harsh words, some will make constructive criticism and others will take the chance to throw all sorts of jokes and offensive words as possible. Unfortunately this is all part of being in the spotlights, and it’s something that we as professional athletes, and mostly in Brazil, have to be always used to deal with.
As much as some will doubt it, I prepared myself a lot for this fight and was well trained, and this is what hurts the most about losing this way, without being able to show what I trained. Those who followed it, trained with me, or saw some of my training knows this. When you lose fighting some rounds, or even some minutes, in some ways it’s less of a suffering cause you were able to show what you got and what you prepared, and it wasn’t enough. But losing this way it’s certainly very frustrating.
I made a techincal mistake, maybe due to anxiety and a big will to get this win in Brazil in such an important moment of my career, and I paid the price. Props to St. Preux, It’s part of the game and he deserved the win.
Now I will rest, enjoy my family and then think about my next steps, TUF Brazil, maybe a weight class change, but I’ll keep on going cause winning is easy, but keep on battling and overcome the obstacles is what makes a true fighter. Thank you all for the support.”
