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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
When Mauricio "Shogun" Rua made the move to the UFC following the collapse of Pride, he came under the Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts which, for the first time in his career, took away a couple of his favorite offensive attacks in foot stomps and soccer kicks.
Now, after spending a few years in the UFC under the more restrictive rules than what he faced in Pride, Rua would like to see stomps brought back to the fold in the UFC. Speaking with ESPN, Rua briefly discussed the UFC's return to Brazil and made a case for stomps to be made legal.
"In Brazil MMA is ready for the UFC now," Shogun said. "Many people have seen the UFC, many people like MMA. It's very popular now, and after UFC 134 on August 27 it will change even more because people will see this big show.
"I hope for a change in rules. The stomps... my opinion is elbows are more dangerous than stomps."
The former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion meets fellow former Champ Forrest Griffin at UFC 134 in Rio de Janeiro in a rematch of his UFC debut in the fall of 2007.
Penick's Analysis: They look extremely brutal and violent, but foot stomps and soccer kicks were a huge part of the arsenal of several fighters in Pride, and it can definitely be argued that being unable to use them have hurt them under the unified rules. And if you take a fight like Saturday's Alistair Overeem vs. Fabricio Werdum bout, having stomps legal would have made that a very different fight. If Overeem could stomp down on Werdum's head when he was pulling guard, he wouldn't have been so quick to do just that. But as they continue to try to get the sportregulated everywhere, the UFC can't make a push to relax some of the rules to allow for the extremely violent-looking kicks and stomps, or knees to the head of a grounded opponent. It's something to look back on in a few years once the sport gets more established into mainstream sports consciousness.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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