Mauricio “Shogun” Rua is weeks away from fighting current UFC light heavyweight champion Lyoto “The Dragon” Machida at UFC 104. Shogun has been continuously studying Machida’s tactics, observing the space and timing that he has used in past opponents. The former PrideFC 2005 middleweight champion seems to be preparing himself very well, stating that he even brought in Karate experts over to his training camp in order to understand Machida’s style of fighting. Although Karate is Machida’s greatest strength, we all know that he has the ability of integrating other MMA knowledge into this upcoming fight.
Machida is a black belt in ‘Machida Karate’ while Shogun is an expert in Muay Thai, Wrestling and Western Boxing. Nonetheless, both fighters are black belts in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, so expect a strategical war on October 24th!
From Mauricio Shogun:
“The key to beat him is work the question of the space in the Octagon. Lyoto is very good on it, and besides that, I tried to take in account all the possibilities that may happen in the fight. I have even trained with karatecas to understand their game. Lyoto plays in the distance and counter attack also in the short distance. So I’m very confident to find the right timing and win.”
