Shogun’s camp details their decision not to face Jon Jones at UFC 152
It came out last week that former UFC Light Heavyweight champion Mauricio Shogun Rua was offered the title shot against Jon Jones at UFC 152 in Toronto. Shogun ultimately turned down the fight, citing a lack of time to prepare for Jones. Lyoto Machida did the same, but Shogun as in a brutal war with Brandon Vera at UFC on Fox 4 , while Machida knocked out Ryan Bader without taking any real damage. Shogun’s manager Julio Heller recently spoke up about the decision:
“We were in Sao Paulo and my phone rang about midnight. It was Lorenzo’s. Lorenzo was on another call, so I talked to him like half hour later. He offered me a rematch against Jon Jones because Lyoto had declined it and asked me to give him an answer in ten minutes. I hung up and Mauricio was there with me. We talked and called Dida in Curitiba and we got to a conclusion we should accept the rematch, but only if Shogun had a couple of months to train and it would mean a fight later in October or in November. I said that to Lorenzo but he said there was no time because Jon Jones’s fight is on September 22nd. Unfortunately, he couldn’t give us this time but he understood.” – via Tatame.com
Obviously Shogun was willing to fight Jones with ample time to prepare, but that was not a luxury the UFC was able to offer at the time. The fight was just not going to happen after that, as Vitor Belfort stepped up on the short notice to face Jones. Hopefully Shogun and Jones will collide again, but Rua must first get past a tall task in Alexander Gustaffson this December. Heller continued on:
“Mauricio accepted at the time the new fight against Jon Jones. The ideal is a three-month camp but he said yes to a two-month camp fight. He wants to fight Jon Jones and it sucks it won’t happen now. But Mauricio’s shot will come. We’re going back to Curitiba on Monday and we’ll start the trainings for Shogun’s fight against Gustaffson. So, nothing’s changed.”
Will Shogun make it back to face the man who took his belt from him?
