‘Shogun’ fighting for a chance to chase a goal

7:02 am | July 20, 2018 | Go to Source | Author:

10:49 AM ET

Jeff WagenheimESPN

The name seemed to emerge out of thin air, a forgotten echo from the faraway past.

Shogun. The reference to Mauricio Rua came spilling out of the mouth of Daniel Cormier, who was still floating in the heady ethers of having become heavyweight champion a couple of days earlier. His breathtaking knockout of Stipe Miocic had made him a two-division champ, and his encore performance that night had been to act out the promo trailer of a passion-for-money play in which he planned to co-star with Brock Lesnar. It was Cormier’s time to bask, to make anything and everything happen in the few months he has left in the sport.

But now sobering reality was setting in. Cormier, 39, knew he had to wait for Lesnar to dance with the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency before he could get his hands on the pro wrestling star and the truckload of money the big lug would lug into the champ-champ’s driveway. Maybe there should be a light heavyweight title defense first. But against whom? You can’t rely on Jon Jones to be free from suspension (and he should be a heavyweight opponent, anyway). The winner of next month’s scheduled bout between Alexander Gustafsson and Volkan Oezdemir would have secured the No. 1 (eligible) contender spot at 205 pounds, but Oezdemir dropped out of that fight on Thursday, citing injury. And DC already has beaten up both of those guys. So maybe, just maybe …

“Maybe I’ll go fight Shogun, that would be good,” Cormier mused last week on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show.

Then he paused, and both interviewer and interviewee chuckled.

Shogun Rua? Really?

“Maybe I’ll go fight Shogun,” Cormier went on, still sounding whimsical. “No, seriously.”

The more Cormier thought about it, the less jokey this callout seemed. Rua, after all, has not lost a fight in nearly four years. Of course, he has fought only three times in that span, and his drawn-out run of success follows a wretched skid in which he went tumbling from light heavyweight king to loser in six of his next nine bouts. Still, even when he wasn’t getting his hand raised, Rua (25-10) was putting on some must-see fights, including two knockdown, drag-out classics with Dan Henderson. And the three-fight winning streak, despite playing out under the radar, has to be worth something.

Especially if it becomes a four-fight winning streak on Sunday, when the 36-year-old Brazilian tangles with Anthony Smith in the main event of a UFC Fight Night in Hamburg, Germany. Smith is a walking, talking cautionary tale, fresh off last month’s career-ending KO of another veteran ex-champion, Rashad Evans.

Rua, in his 16th year as a pro fighter, recognizes the danger in thinking about Cormier when he should be thinking about Anthony Smith.

“I thought it was very cool to have Daniel Cormier mention me as a potential challenger. Obviously, my dream is to conquer the championship again,” Rua told ESPN through a translator this week. “But at the same time, I’m experienced enough to know that I first have to fight Anthony Smith. He is a very tough guy. I can’t look past him. This fight is all that matters right now.”

This fight was supposed to be against Oezdemir — twice. Rua initially was scheduled to face the Swiss fighter as part of a UFC event in Chile in May, but their meeting was pushed back to this weekend in Germany. Then Oezdemir was shifted into the Gustafsson fight, and in came Smith (29-13), a 29-year-old who has won 12 of 14 fights over the last four years — far more cage activity than Rua has seen in that time.

Rua has weathered the promotion’s game of musical chairs in stride, but he did take note of one detail regarding his replacement opponent.

“He is the favorite to win the fight, according to the odds,” he said of Smith. “So it’s motivation for me, motivation to prove everybody wrong, to prove to everybody that I’m better than him.”

That Rua still has to prove himself sums up the cruel amnesia of the fight game. “Shogun” long ago proved himself on the biggest stages of MMA. He became UFC light heavyweight champion in 2010 with an explosive KO victory over Lyoto Machida, and who knows how long he would have reigned if he hadn’t run into the buzzsaw that was a young Jon Jones in Rua’s very first title defense?

Prior to that, Rua had established himself as a fearsome figure during his years in the Pride Fighting Championships. He won the promotion’s 2005 Middleweight Grand Prix with three first-round KOs in four fights, including an iconic barrage of knees to the ribs and soccer kicks to the face that finished off Quinton “Rampage” Jackson.

“He is a legend,” Cormier said of Rua during the friendliest of callouts. “And he’s a great guy.”

Rua recognizes his exalted place in the game. He also recognizes that his legacy has greater stature in the history books than it does inside the cage of a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately sport. “Ever since 2003 I have been fighting the best fighters in the world,” he said, referring to the year when he joined Pride. “It’s a privilege to still be competing on that level. And now I have some momentum behind me. I hope to be able to continue like that.”

If he does continue his winning ways, what’s ahead for Rua could be the same soul-stirring incentive that Cormier saw ahead of him less than two weeks ago.

“For him, moving up to heavyweight to compete for the championship was a challenge, a new challenge,” Rua said. “And what motivates a professional athlete are the challenges. I think that certainly made him a better fighter, to have that goal and have that challenge. I feel the challenge now, too. I am focused and motivated and happy to be fighting toward a goal.”