Aaron
04-03-2009, 08:20 PM
By Jack Barrington (Bazza)
Early in Mauricio “Shogun” Rua’s UFC career, he’s already generated a great deal of talk amongst MMA fans and fighters alike. It has not, however, been the kind of talk that Shogun or his fans had hoped for after he made the switch from the now defunct Pride FC.
Less than three minutes into Shogun’s first UFC fight it became clear that something was missing. Not only that, but anyone who had seen Shogun fight before knew exactly what it was. This was a man who had fought a frenzied fifteen minute war with Rogerio Noguiera without slowing, and yet, less than a third of the way through his UFC debut he was breathing with his mouth open and showing obvious signs of fatigue. By the second round his hands were at his waist and they largely stayed there for the remainder of the fight, right up until the point where he tapped out to a rear-naked choke putting only the third loss on his MMA record.
In his supposed “comeback fight” against 44 year old UFC veteran Mark Coleman, the issues with Rua’s cardio were once again evident. This time though, several more serious flaws in Shogun’s game were exposed.
The most worrying for any Shogun fan had to be his complete lack of head movement. Mark Coleman has never been regarded as even a decent striker yet he landed several punches to Rua’s head and face throughout the fight. This was never an issue for him in Pride and can be partly attributed to his excellent conditioning. His previous conditioning had allowed him to employ his aggressive swarming style. In this way, he prevented people from getting punches off and it also aided his already impressive recovery time when opponents did manage to land.
Even with his trademark conditioning, I feel that this approach would land him in some trouble against several of the UFC’s top 205lb fighters. Rogerio Noguiera managed to drop him in their epic battle at the 2005 middle-weight grand prix tournament and he’s not exactly known as a heavy hitter. With power punchers such as Rashad Evans, Quinton Jackson and Chuck Liddell all currently competing near the top of the UFC’s marquee division, the chances are that if you get dropped you stay dropped.
Bet on MMA at Bodog
Shogun’s next major issue relates in many ways to the aforementioned lack of head movement. Watch a Shogun Rua fight, any fight, and once you look past the fast pace and untamed aggression you notice that he only ever moves forward or backwards, occasionally circling when his opponent engages but usually feeling comfortable to stand toe to toe.
This lack of footwork can be disguised in a ring by continually moving forward as there are plenty of places to trap your opponents. In the octagon however, fighters have much more room to circle and evade him charging in. And when they do get caught against the fence, there are no corners that restrict them from escaping Shogun’s wild punches and dangerous clinch game.
We’ve seen it before in the UFC with Mirko Crocop and it’s been proven for all to see that some fighters’ striking styles are simply a lot more suited to a traditional ring. It’s up to the fighters to work on evolving their striking so that it can be just as effective in the octagon.
My final criticism of Shogun’s skill-set is simply in his basic punching technique. There’s no doubt that Shogun packs punching power but once again his lack of cardio has exposed serious technical flaws in his standup game. Shogun rarely uses his jab, even in an attempt to gauge the distance between him and his opponent. He also throws predictable combinations of straight lefts and rights with the occasional hook or overhand thrown in unless he is up close. This combined with his lack of footwork and head movement doesn’t exactly make him the imposing striker he was once touted as.
The three identified issues all combine to show a rather clear hole in Shogun’s game: his technical boxing. This is a fighter who has good wrestling, excellent kicks, an effective clinch and a high quality ground game. Provided he can get his conditioning back to where it once was, I feel that if Shogun can significantly improve his boxing, then he can once again be considered the best 205lb fighter on the planet.
I don’t usually support such moves for MMA fighters, but in this case I feel the best thing for Shogun would be to train with a top level boxing coach for an extended period of time. He shouldn’t discard the other areas of his training altogether, but this is where I feel he has the most room, and need, for improvement. Regardless of the result of their fight, nobody can deny that Andrei Arlovski looked much improved against Fedor Emelianenko. This can be attributed to months of training with the hightly renowned Freddie Roach and Shogun too could benefit from his expertise.
This article is not a criticism of Shogun as a fighter; it is merely an acknowledgement of a serious weakness in his skill-set that seems to have been overlooked. Tightening up his boxing can only mean good things for his career at a time when it has drawn so much denigration from anyone with an opinion. I strongly believe that he should take action regarding the concerns covered in this article. In doing so, we will see an even better Mauricio Rua than the one who caused such a storm in the MMA world throughout 2005.
All of this depends of course on whether he gets his trademark cardio back. Regardless of his well publicised knee injuries, it’s up to Shogun to prove to the world that he still has the desire to rule the light heavy-weight division.
It’s a long road back and his journey should take him into world class boxing gyms and to a level of conditioning that is fitting for a fighter of his reputation.
Early in Mauricio “Shogun” Rua’s UFC career, he’s already generated a great deal of talk amongst MMA fans and fighters alike. It has not, however, been the kind of talk that Shogun or his fans had hoped for after he made the switch from the now defunct Pride FC.
Less than three minutes into Shogun’s first UFC fight it became clear that something was missing. Not only that, but anyone who had seen Shogun fight before knew exactly what it was. This was a man who had fought a frenzied fifteen minute war with Rogerio Noguiera without slowing, and yet, less than a third of the way through his UFC debut he was breathing with his mouth open and showing obvious signs of fatigue. By the second round his hands were at his waist and they largely stayed there for the remainder of the fight, right up until the point where he tapped out to a rear-naked choke putting only the third loss on his MMA record.
In his supposed “comeback fight” against 44 year old UFC veteran Mark Coleman, the issues with Rua’s cardio were once again evident. This time though, several more serious flaws in Shogun’s game were exposed.
The most worrying for any Shogun fan had to be his complete lack of head movement. Mark Coleman has never been regarded as even a decent striker yet he landed several punches to Rua’s head and face throughout the fight. This was never an issue for him in Pride and can be partly attributed to his excellent conditioning. His previous conditioning had allowed him to employ his aggressive swarming style. In this way, he prevented people from getting punches off and it also aided his already impressive recovery time when opponents did manage to land.
Even with his trademark conditioning, I feel that this approach would land him in some trouble against several of the UFC’s top 205lb fighters. Rogerio Noguiera managed to drop him in their epic battle at the 2005 middle-weight grand prix tournament and he’s not exactly known as a heavy hitter. With power punchers such as Rashad Evans, Quinton Jackson and Chuck Liddell all currently competing near the top of the UFC’s marquee division, the chances are that if you get dropped you stay dropped.
Bet on MMA at Bodog
Shogun’s next major issue relates in many ways to the aforementioned lack of head movement. Watch a Shogun Rua fight, any fight, and once you look past the fast pace and untamed aggression you notice that he only ever moves forward or backwards, occasionally circling when his opponent engages but usually feeling comfortable to stand toe to toe.
This lack of footwork can be disguised in a ring by continually moving forward as there are plenty of places to trap your opponents. In the octagon however, fighters have much more room to circle and evade him charging in. And when they do get caught against the fence, there are no corners that restrict them from escaping Shogun’s wild punches and dangerous clinch game.
We’ve seen it before in the UFC with Mirko Crocop and it’s been proven for all to see that some fighters’ striking styles are simply a lot more suited to a traditional ring. It’s up to the fighters to work on evolving their striking so that it can be just as effective in the octagon.
My final criticism of Shogun’s skill-set is simply in his basic punching technique. There’s no doubt that Shogun packs punching power but once again his lack of cardio has exposed serious technical flaws in his standup game. Shogun rarely uses his jab, even in an attempt to gauge the distance between him and his opponent. He also throws predictable combinations of straight lefts and rights with the occasional hook or overhand thrown in unless he is up close. This combined with his lack of footwork and head movement doesn’t exactly make him the imposing striker he was once touted as.
The three identified issues all combine to show a rather clear hole in Shogun’s game: his technical boxing. This is a fighter who has good wrestling, excellent kicks, an effective clinch and a high quality ground game. Provided he can get his conditioning back to where it once was, I feel that if Shogun can significantly improve his boxing, then he can once again be considered the best 205lb fighter on the planet.
I don’t usually support such moves for MMA fighters, but in this case I feel the best thing for Shogun would be to train with a top level boxing coach for an extended period of time. He shouldn’t discard the other areas of his training altogether, but this is where I feel he has the most room, and need, for improvement. Regardless of the result of their fight, nobody can deny that Andrei Arlovski looked much improved against Fedor Emelianenko. This can be attributed to months of training with the hightly renowned Freddie Roach and Shogun too could benefit from his expertise.
This article is not a criticism of Shogun as a fighter; it is merely an acknowledgement of a serious weakness in his skill-set that seems to have been overlooked. Tightening up his boxing can only mean good things for his career at a time when it has drawn so much denigration from anyone with an opinion. I strongly believe that he should take action regarding the concerns covered in this article. In doing so, we will see an even better Mauricio Rua than the one who caused such a storm in the MMA world throughout 2005.
All of this depends of course on whether he gets his trademark cardio back. Regardless of his well publicised knee injuries, it’s up to Shogun to prove to the world that he still has the desire to rule the light heavy-weight division.
It’s a long road back and his journey should take him into world class boxing gyms and to a level of conditioning that is fitting for a fighter of his reputation.