Shogun: "I'm a better fighter now than I was in the PRIDE grand prix"

With the most anticipated rematch in UFC history now less than a week away, Challenger Mauricio Rua spoke out about finding his feet inside the cage, as well as talking about the rematch to his questionable loss to Lyoto Machida back at UFC 104 on October of 2009.



Speaking via MMAJunkie.com, “Shogun” Rua said:

“Well actually, I hope that I’m a better fighter now than I was in the PRIDE grand prix because I train everyday for that to get better. When I fought Mark Coleman, I actually was in good shape. I was well-trained. But, some things were lacking.”

“I didn’t really have a good notion of space inside the octagon because I had never trained in a cage before. I was training in a ring. And I think that was the biggest difference that affected my performance in the fight because it was a totally different ballgame.”

“I have an octagon with the UFC size in my academy, and I think that changes a lot of my training and my preparation. I think that was likely the biggest mistake I did when I first came into the UFC, to not have an actual fighting space to train at that was much like the one I would use … in the UFC.”



On the upcoming Light heavyweight rematch with Lyoto Machida, Shogun also added:

“I think it was really a controversial fight where some people thought that I won the fight and some people thought that I lost the fight. The biggest proof that it was a controversial fight was the fact that a rematch was set up immediately. But this is all in the past for me right now. And what gives me comfort is the fact that I’m having another shot at a title and I’ll fight for the world championship again.”



UFC 113 will feature two other slugfests, a welterweight war between Paul Daley and Josh Koscheck, as well as a heavyweight brawl between Matt Mitrione and Kimbo Slice.