THE MMA INJURY BUG: MAURICIO ‘SHOGUN’ RUA
With the announcement last month of Mauricio”Shogun” Rua’s powerful shoulder surgery, the Brazilian superstar has continued his legacy of being a mixed martial arts (MMA) medical marvel. It is beyond evident that Shogun is injury prone. However, with the total amount of punishment he’s obtained, many might consider it amazing that is he is not only still alive to talk about it continues fighting professionally at the highest level on the biggest point to this day. Throughout Shogun’s storied 30+ fight MMA career, he has faced countless setbacks through the much-maligned MMA Injury Bug. IMG_1702
Picture Made by Shayne Smith
Is the shoulder operation the result of the necessary maintainance when it’s comes to battling, or that of a washed up fighter? It is definitely more than just another slight setback to his already legendary career, since it’s serious enough that will not see him contend till early 2016. At just 33 decades old, it looks like a normal procedure on the surface. However, to a lot of fans, this is just another reason to make a declaration that Shogun’s best days as a fighter are obviously behind him. Perhaps even he should retire. The toughest issue concerning the Shogun situation is that he is not even that old, but fight years are a very different story. IMG_1693 Many pundits accredit the overwhelming accumulation of harm to a combination of both his days sparring with the legendary Chute Boxe Academy and into the grueling losses he has gathered inside the Octagon. There’s not any doubt the Shogun’s time as an expert mixed Martial Artist has taken it’s toll on him . It was seen what the price are in association with winning those four UFC”Fight of the Night” performance bonuses. Can they blame for why many believe Shogun is well past his prime? This article gives a brief medial synopsis of the injuries the former UFC light heavyweight champion has accrued through his times as a professional fighter to further illustrate the ascertaining as to if a fighter is possibly past his prime, and also to prove that a fighter being close retirement isn’t solely dependant on age demographics. Shogun’s knees have faced more wear and tear than any fighter currently on the UFC roster with the exception of Dominick Cruz. The Brazilian first injured his anterior cruciate ligament training for his struggle with Forrest Griffin in UFC 76. Trying to fight with injury, he pulled out the ligament completely through the ensuing fight. The injury required surgery to fix and countless hours of rehab. Upon rehabbing the helpless leg for several weeks, he returned to instruction and sadly completely blew out his ACL. Another surgery and rehabilitation regimen kept him on the sidelines until his UFC 93 bout with Mark Coleman which was nearly a year and a half following the struggle with Griffin. While training for a rematch against Lyoto Machida, he once again injured his knee against doctors orders, he proceeded to fight anyways. Despite winning in convincing manner, the cause foIMG_1695r celebration was curtailed by Rua’s need for immediate surgery. Because of this it might be just over 10 months later before fans would see him create his Octagon return against Jon Jones. It was a struggle that not only ended his title reign in devastating fashion but one where the fighter seemed to be a shell of his former self for the first time. To put it simply, his knee imploded. And then it happened. And then it occurred once again for good measure. The surgical fix count needed to fix his knees immediately required three big surgeries in under three years. However it has to be mentioned that history had shown us MMA fans that Shogun can’t blame those injuries alone for hindering his fantasies of getting a UFC champion. Despite being plagued by the injury bug for a second time, Shogun went on to be UFC champion, however short the title reign was. Regrettably, it’s doubtful this time about that Shogun will recover his glory days of times past. As fans, most of us hope he gets beyond these newest injury woes to become a contender once more. However as handicappers we must take this as another indication he is not capable of competing with the division’s elite.
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