UFC veteran Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua has revealed that he still plans to fight two more times before finally hanging up his gloves for good.
“I´m driven by challenges,” Rua told Sherdog. “My focus is totally on the UFC. I want to fight twice more.”
Rua recently turned 40-years-old and is coming off a submission loss to Paul Craig over a year ago that left him with an injured elbow that’s forced him to sit out much of 2021, but he’s now targeting a return to action within the first few months of next year.
“It was the same place I injured against [Mark] Coleman in Pride. My doctor thought it was better to recover without surgery and that’s what I did. Last August I started to train and now I feel 100 percent, so I´ll ask my manager Eduardo Alonso to set my next fight by March.”
However, Rua has also acknowledged that in addition to his UFC fights he’s also intrigued by the prospect of potentially going up against another Brazilian veteran Ricardo Arona in a grappling match.
“If ADCC or another grappling event promoter invited me to face Arona in submission rules, with all the respect I have for him, I would accept that offer and would fight to win.”
