UFC Fight Night 56: ‘Shogun’ Rua knows when he will retire and that time isn’t now
Retirement isn’t a word that any athlete wants to hear for one reason or another. Reasons can be they need money, have no plan on what to do after retirement or just pure joy of the sport and will miss it. For Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua the calls have been for retirement have been made as he heads into tonight’s UFC Fight Night 56 headliner against Ovince Saint Preux. Rua last competed at UFC Fight Night 38 in March against Dan Henderson. ‘Shogun’ had won the first two rounds pretty handily, but things change quickly in MMA. In the third round, Henderson went for a takedown, but Rua stuffed it and then Henderson landed a vicious right hand to knockout Rua. After that loss, Rua was upset for awhile, but took the positive approach and started looking ahead.
“I got very upset with that loss,” Rua told Sporting News. “But then again, this isn’t the best already and it happens. I have to look ahead and think about the future and my future commitments.”
Rua has lost three of his last four fights, with fans and media speaking loudly thinking it is time for him to retire. The former 2005 Pride grand prix winner and UFC light heavyweight champion has heard those calls. He has a definitive answer to those who say he should hang up his four ounce gloves.
“Actually, I’m still very happy to fight,” Rua said. “While I’m still happy training, feeling good about training, feeling good in training, feeling good good fighting and the UFC is happy to have me in the show and happy with my services, why would I stop fighting? As long as I feel good and I know a lot of people will say that I should retire. When I retire is the day I’m not capable of competing at a high level anymore, not training well, not feeling good in training or in fighting. I feel good and still want to fight in the UFC. I want to be in the show. I signed a new deal and I intend on fulfilling the deal and do the eight fights that I signed with the UFC. Then after those eight fights, I’ll stop to think about it and see what I want to do. I’m focused and happy to fulfill my new eight fight contract.”
Steven Muehlhausen is an MMA writer and contributor for Sporting News. Find him on Twitter @SMuehlhausenMMA.
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