Mauricio Shogun Rua on Bouncing Back from Losses

 

Mauricio "Shogun" Rua made a statement about his loss to Chael Sonnen which reflects the spirit of a fighter, which includes is optimism, hope, and improvement:

"I have 11 years in MMA and Vale Tudo, I won everything I always wanted. I achieved everything I dreamed, but I want to do that again. I still want many victories; I still want to become the world champion again. Who decides when I will stop or not is myself, no one else. Thank God I’m financially stable, and I keep fighting because I love it....

I’m a really competitive guy, who hates to be defeated. I know I did everything I should have done during my preparation, but Sonnen was better on the fight. Unfortunately, in the fight, we have to wait a lot to return and bounce back. In soccer, you lose on Sunday and win on Wednesday, everything is ok. I’ll get back home, see what went wrong on the fight and train hard to make sure that mistake won’t happen again."

Chael Sonnen on his respect for Shogun Rua

 

Chael Sonnen has been known for his entertaining trash-talk, but for his UFC on Fox Sports 1 opponent, Mauricio "Shogun" Rua, he has nothing but kind words. He noted the following in his interview with MMA Fighting's Ariel Helwani:

I don't like him because I want to like him, I've been around him and he's a good dude. I've been entertained by him over the years, I've been inspired by him at times as most fighters have over the years. That's what I think of him.

Shogun on Motivation, Dreams, and Inspiration

Mauricio "Shogun" Rua talks training for his fight with Chael Sonnen at UFC on Fox Sports 1 and his motivation and inspiration in general:

I will go after my dreams training hard and dedicating myself to my maximum. To be able to be at my best in the fight and achieve the win. Each victory achieved is a dream come true. And that is what motivates me. 

The thing is to train hard and have determination. And to do what you love to do. When you do what you love, you do it with pleasure. So it's done well. 

Everything inspires me. This fight, my career, my life, my daughter, my family, my team, are my inspiration. My fans are my inspiration. Everything inspires me and I take whatever I can as inspiration.

Chael Sonnen on Respecting Mauricio "Shogun" Rua

Chael Sonnen has been known to throw out some trash talk, but don't expect to see that leading up to his fight with Mauricio "Shogun" Rua at UFC on Fox Sports 1. Sonnen has the utmost respect for Shogun, who is has been lauded universally for his warrior spirit, striking skills, and very humble and respectful disposition. Chael Sonnen has only praise Shogun:

"It'd be nice to not like Shogun, but he's a very hard guy not to like. He's impossible to not respect."



UFC on Fox Sports 1: Shogun vs. Sonnen takes place on August 17th at the TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts.
 

Mauricio Rua vs. Chael Sonnen
Alistair Overeem vs. Travis Browne
Urijah Faber vs. Yuri Alcantara
Matt Brown vs. Mike Pyle
Brad Pickett vs. Michael McDonald
Joe Lauzon vs. Michael Johnson

Preliminary card (Fox Sports 1)
Uriah Hall vs. John Howard
Conor McGregor vs. Max Holloway
Mike Brown vs. Steven Siler
Diego Brandao vs. Daniel Pineda

Preliminary card (Facebook)
Manvel Gamburyan vs. Cole Miller
Cody Donovan vs. Ovince St. Preux
Ramsey Nijem vs. James Vick

Cross Counter 2: Gif Madness

After the massive success of my article on the cross counter fight fans began coming out of the woodwork on forums everywhere and showing me their favorite instances of the technique being employed. Here are a couple that I really enjoyed. As a reminder, the classical cross counter is an overhand thrown over the top of an opponent's jab and is regarded as the most effective counter punch in boxing, and not the straight right hand as is thought today.

Here is a superb application by K-1 Max and Shootboxing legend, Andy Souwer against Gago Drago. The cross counter punctuated a classic Souwer clinic in kickboxing, and while he is not known for his punching power, a perfectly timed counter-strike like this will end anyone's night.






Here is one of Overeem's against Ben Edwards from the original article. As you can see he lands beautifully as over Ben's attack and sends him sprawling to the mat like a sack filled with vegetable soup.










This gif of Machida's loss to Shogun shows largely the cost of tactical errors at the highest level of the game. In their 6 rounds of combat Machida and Shogun were pretty much at a stale mate as each one fired back a counter to the other man's counters. Machida landed a solid springing knee (case study of the Machida knee coming soon!) and got too confident in the pocket with a much better brawler. Following immediately with a left straight (from a southpaw stance) Machida was met with a cross counter from Shogun which caught his temple and took him out of the fight.




In this gif Jen's Pulver, in his young and terrifying days, lands a cross counter on John Lewis who is clearly timid and attempting to "establish the jab" against the undersized lightweight king. Pulver can likely see the tentativeness of his opponent as clearly as we do in this grainy gif, isn't bothered and simply socks him over the top. That's comfort that only experience can bring.








Here is BJ Penn throwing an interesting variation where he ducks the left hand of Sanchez (a vastly inferior striker who threw the same combination repeatedly at the exclusion of everything else against Penn) and comes up with the right hook - a truly difficult punch to land at the top level, and beautifully done by BJ. An article on the right hook will be coming at some point I assure you all!






A final cross counter, by the king of the cross counter (seriously, I could make an entire page of just his - and might) Joe Louis. Here the gigantic Primo "The Ambling Alp" Carnera has been circling to his left while bolt upright and jabbing all fight (take note Michael Bisping) and Louis clocks him over the top in the sixth round, heralding the beginning of the end for the big Italian.