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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Despite UFC President Dana White's comments on ESPN yesterday targeting UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Mauricio "Shogun" Rua's for the late spring or early summer, the Champ is targeting a much earlier return date.
Shogun will begin at least one camp in preparation for a February return this November, as he will be traveling to Minnesota to train with old friend and former striking coach Sergio Cunha, who now runs the Minnesota Fight Factory in the state.
Cunha, who trained formerly with the famed Chute Boxe academy as well as Brazilian Top Team, told MMATorch as much on the MMATorch Livecast on Tuesday night, and said Shogun's recovery is currently going very well.
"[Shogun is working] with a soccer team, very famous in Brazil called Sao Paulo soccer team, he's making his recovery with that team," said Cunha. "He's going to come back probably on the [Super Bowl [show], that's almost 100% going to happen. His next camp [will come] in November in Minnesota with me, we are working [that out]."
But that's not all. With the recent talk of Anderson Silva and Chael Sonnen being set up for their immediate rematch, and the Super Bowl show already being one of those rumored dates for that fight, Cunha said that's probably where Silva ends up as well.
"That's true [Shogun is] going to come back next year," Cunha said. "He's recovering very well and we're going to have a chance to see him and probably Anderson Silva [on that same card].
"[The Super Bowl weekend show] is probably what's going to happen with both guys."
If that's the case, the UFC will have a massive Super Bowl weekend show lined up for February 5, and they'll have a chance to kick off their 2011 with a hugely successful pay-per-view card featuring Silva vs. Sonnen and Shogun vs. Rashad Evans at the top.
Penick's Analysis: If the timing works out here for both Shogun and Anderson to get on this card together, it will be huge. The Silva rematch with Sonnen is already going to garner a ton of pay-per-view buys on its own, but adding Rashad to the mix fresh off a million buys at UFC 114 and Shogun returning off of his destruction of Lyoto Machida, and this becomes a big, big event. It'll certainly be much more palatable than Randy Couture vs. Mark Coleman in that slot earlier this year.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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