Mauricio Shogun Rua hints he has a trick up his sleeve for his rematch against Lyoto Machida

Published on: 7th December, 2009

Mauricio Shogun Rua hints he has a trick up his sleeve for his rematch against Lyoto Machida  | read this item

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Mauricio Shogun Rua tells Tatame.com that he will have a new gameplan for his rematch against Lyoto Machida, but also hints he may have something up his sleeve for their second fight.

“I’ll change my game, because, definitely, he will come different. I’ll go with another strategy, to card up my sleeve”, guarantee, talking about the low kicks used on the fight. “The kicks hit him well, on the rib, the knee, and I realize that he was getting hurt, even during the fight and I think that he worked with strength. The guy is a warrior. I think that if this fight happened is normal conditions I would win”

Shogun also explained that he must change his plan because he and Machida know each others strengths after their UFC 104 fight.

“The same way that he knows my tactics to fight I know his, and that’s 0×0, no one have advantage. It’s gonna be a battle, I’ll have to train all over again”, analyzes, focused on the title: “that’s my dream and my mission”

If you look at the third sentence in Shogun’s quote, you will see he mentions that his leg kicks did not do the damage to Machida he expected. They also did not score the same points on the score cards he expected. His trick may be the decision to go with more body and head kicks. It appears that may be a wise idea given the recent rash of MMA Judges that have chosen to ignore leg kicks, or even score them on the same level as a jab.

If you look at this past weekends Kimbo Slice vs Houston Alexander fight, one judge scored the fight 30-27. The first round of their fight, Houston Alexander landed a majority of leg kicks. Slice barely landed  any punches, which shows how much respect they have for the strikes.

If Shogun is going to be successful he is going to have to finish Machida, or completely dominate him. He can not chance letting the fight go into the judges score cards again, especially since it will take him a year or two to earn another title shot.

 Alberto Martinez "The Narcisist" is the founding owner of URDirt.com. If you would like to post on the front page or in our New "Fan Jab" section all you need to do is register. Read more from this author

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