In a battle of aging veterans it was Mauricio "Shogun" Rua who was able to score a unanimous decision win over Antonio Rogerio Nogueira in the co-main event at UFC 190.
MMAjunkie tweeted the official results:
The bout began with Shogun claiming the middle of the Octagon while Nogueira was content to circle around the outside. However, it didn't take long until they were exchanging leather, with Shogun using a kick-heavy game plan and Nogueira opting to throw hands.
With Shogun getting backed up against the cage, Nogueira stymied Rua, leading to a fast and furious end to an otherwise slow round. Mike Bohn of MMAjunkie noted the similarities between the end of the round and their previous fight:
Shogun opened the second frame with a takedown looking to score some points after the rough finish to Round 1. Little Nog then used his jiu-jitsu to work back to the feet, but it was Rua who kept up the pressure, working his clinch game along the fence until Mario Yamasaki returned the fighters to the middle of the cage.
Although Rua didn't do the same damage that Nogueira did in the opening frame, it was a round for Shogun.
With the fight seemingly tied, the third round was a little more crowd-oriented than the first two. Both fighters were willing participants in a striking battle. That is until Shogun decided to attempt to get the fight back to the ground. Nogueira defended a double leg attempt with a guillotine that Rua ultimately slipped out of to end the fight.
The win marks the second for Shogun over Little Nog. However, this one comes under much different circumstances. Shogun's first victory came over a decade ago under the Pride banner in the quarterfinal of the 2005 middleweight Grand Prix.
The fight was an instant classic and a contender for fight of the year alongside Forrest Griffin and Stephan Bonnar's epic first fight.
It's safe to say that neither fighter has much left to give in the Octagon. While Rua was undoubtedly excited to get his hand raised in his home country, this win only moved him to 2-4 in his last six fights. With 33 professional fights under his belt, one has to wonder just how much longer he can hang on.
Of course, one thing keeping him coming back could be the lack of depth in the light heavyweight division. The 205-pounders are suffering from a dearth of fresh faces, and Rua entered this fight as the No. 8 ranked fighter in the division according to the UFC's rankings.
With so few rising contenders in the division, this win should buy Shogun another opportunity to stay relevant—something that he most likely would attribute to his reuniting with former trainer Rafael Cordeiro.
"What motivated me to train with Rafael is that he focuses more on muay thai, and that’s my best game," Rua said, according to Guilherme Cruz of MMA Fighting. "I trained more muay thai for this fight, and that’s what I love. He’s a MMA coach but he’s a muay thai expert. Master Rafael knows my game and he trains what I do best, muay thai. I train happier with him."
Moving to Cordeiro was clearly the right move for Rua. He was able to pick up the win in Brazil, and Cordeiro has shown a knack for getting fighters into contention recently. Both Fabricio Werdum and Rafael dos Anjos have exceeded expectations under his tutelage.
For Nogueira, this is just a disappointing loss, and it's not clear where he should go from here. He's only been able to fight once a year for the past three years due to various injuries. At 39 years old, that's not an issue that is likely to go away.
It might be time for Lil' Nog to hang up the gloves for good even though he entered the bout at No. 11 in the UFC rankings.
Whether Shogun is able to manage even a fraction of the career resurrection that Cordeiro-trained fighters have enjoyed remains to be seen. After getting finished in three of his four fights leading up to this bout, there's a lot of ground to make up.
However, for one night, Shogun was able to turn the clocks back and get his hand raised. That will be one of the more memorable moments from UFC 190 in Rio de Janeiro.
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