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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Mauricio "Shogun" Rua and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira met for the first time ten years ago in the 2005 Pride Middleweight Grand Prix. The fight was considered one of the best of that year, and remains one of the more epic and noteworthy fights in the history of the Japanese promotion.
They're set to face off for the second time this Saturday night at UFC 190, each of them in a very different place than they were a decade ago. However, despite how much time has passed since that first fight, both are expecting another highly competitive matchup in Brazil.
"I expect a tough fight, man," Rua said when speaking to Brazilian media this week (via Guilherme Cruz at MMAFighting.com). "'Minotouro' is a tough fighter, has a huge heart, so I expect another war, just like in our 2005 fight. He likes to strike and so do I, so a brawl is inevitable, right? I've been fighting for over 10 years, and so [has] he, so I'm sure we both will keep it standing. It's MMA, but our best weapon is our striking game."
For Nogueira, he believes it's going to be another exciting fight, but thinks he's better than he was in that first matchup.
"That's what we hope for. Fans loved that fight so they expect this to be as exciting," Nogueira said. "I trained really hard to put on a great show for the fans. I was more focused on my boxing at that time, and he worked better in the clinch. He surprised me a lot, he was stronger. My takedown defense has evolved a lot, though. I worked hard on my wrestling, jiu-jitsu, and muay thai for this fight."
Penick's Analysis: Given how the two of them have fared in recent years, it's nearly impossible for them to come anywhere close to what they did ten years ago. It's questionable for Shogun to still be fighting at this point seeing how much damage he's taken in the recent past, so really there's just not a ton of intrigue in this rematch right now. If it winds up being an exciting fight, great, but expectations will be understandably low with this one.
[Mauricio "Shogun" Rua art by Grant Gould (c) MMATorch.com]
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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