MMA-legenden Mauricio ”Shogun” Rua har snart fightats i hela 15 år och härnäst kommer han att gå sin 35:e match, då han tar sig an Gian Villante under ”UFC: Fight Night 106” den 11 mars. Många har undrat om det inte vore dags för Rua att lägga handskarna på hyllan inom en snar framtid, men det är en fråga som Mauricio stör sig på.
Detta hade ”Shogun” att säga om det hela, via ”MMAJunkie”:
The subject bothers me a little. Because I’m experienced – I’ve been fighting for many years – but I’m also a young guy. I’m 35. People stop at 40, 38, 39. Depends. I think every athlete has the liberty to stop whenever they want.
People speculate that a lot about me because I’ve had a few losses, but everyone has losses. So if a doctor doesn’t perform a perfect surgery, they need to retire? If a dentist doesn’t perfectly extract a tooth, they need to retire? A businesswoman goes into a meeting and it’s not successful, she needs to retire? If I’m happy to be fighting, and the UFC is happy to have me fighting for them, I don’t know why people are so bothered by it.
Now I’m fully recovered. My focus for 2017 is for sure to do two or three fights. I think, two at least – that’s my focus for every year. I try to always look after myself. Now I’m 100 percent, thankfully. I had tendinitis on my knee, and that got in the way of training. That’s healed up, and hopefully I won’t have any more injuries this year.
Rua har radat upp två segrar som brutit en två matcher lång förlustsvit, och sist vi såg Mauricio fightas besegrade han Corey Anderson via ett delat domslut under UFC 198.
