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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
UFC President Dana White levied a bunch of criticism on fighters for turning down a September matchup with UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Jon Jones, and he's used that scenario as a reason for Chael Sonnen getting a shot against Jones on The Ultimate Fighter. One of the men who turned down that September matchup was Mauricio "Shogun" Rua, who fights this Saturday night at UFC on Fox 5.
During a media conference call for the event, Shogun explained why he was unable to take the fight with Jones on the timetable the UFC was looking for.
"I was off – totally off training – when the UFC invite me to fight against Jones," Shogun said (transcribed by MMAWeekly.com). "Everybody knew that I was off those two weeks after my fight against [Brandon] Vera. So I am satisfied. I told the UFC that I just need six weeks, but I was explaining that [two weeks] is not enough time."
Because he was unable to take that fight on just a couple weeks notice, it left him out of a potential title fight, and further down the ladder than perhaps he might like to be. However, he's wholly focused on Saturday's event and his fight with a different young fighter in Gustafsson, and past that doesn't matter to him right now.
"It's important to take [everything] step-by-step right now and I'm focusing on this fight,” Shogun said. "Everything can change after that. Right now, [it's all] about the fight against Gustafsson."
"I'm in a wonderful place for the Gustafsson fight. Everything's running okay. The schedule hasn't changed; there's no injuries. So we're almost done. I'm ready for this fight. I think this is a fight that every fan wants to see because both [of us] look for the knockout."
Penick's Analysis: Shogun had a very reasonable explanation for being unable to take the Jones fight by UFC 152 in September, and it's one of the things that breaks apart White's arguments for Sonnen. The fact that a few fighters couldn't take a fight on a few weeks notice doesn't mean they would have turned the fight down on 6-10 weeks for close to a full camp. They're completely different situations, and negate the arguments against those fighters getting a shot against Jones in April. But that's a digression from these comments. Ultimately, Shogun's got a fight to win on Saturday night, and if he leaves Saturday's fight with a win and healthy, he'll potentially be in a really good spot into 2013.
[Mauricio "Shogun" Rua art by Grant Gould (c) MMATorch.com]
Source: http://www.mmatorch.com/artman2/publish/UFC_2/article_15192.shtml
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