turned down the bout<\/a>, when Rua allegedly said he would rather get released from the promotion than face Teixeira. Rua denied making those comments then, and to this day defends it made no sense to face the fellow Brazilian, who was 1-0 in the UFC at the time.<\/p>\n\u201cGlover wasn\u2019t even ranked at the time, and I was in the top 5 in the UFC,\u201d Rua said. \u201cDana White told me that if I won my next fight I\u2019d get another title shot, and if I had won against Glover, I definitely wouldn\u2019t have gotten that opportunity. So my team felt it was better not to accept the fight at that moment. If it had been a different situation, my team would have accepted it without a doubt.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fast forward to 2026 and the two veterans, both around 45 years of age now, will collide in an eight-round heavyweight showdown. It\u2019s not an official boxing match but yet a pro-hybrid contest where knockouts are allowed. Both fighters have left the UFC on the same night in January 2023, with Jamahal Hill beating Teixeira in a championship bout and Ihor Potieria stopping \u201cShogun.\u201d Rua sees this as the chance to \u201cput the gloves on and finally have the farewell fight,\u201d but wouldn\u2019t confirm this is his official retirement bout.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know because the future is a mystery,\u201d Rua said. \u201cI truly believe this will be my last fight. I\u2019ve always wanted to fight at Spaten. I think I\u2019ll fight and then actually retire for good, but we\u2019ll see. You never know what tomorrow brings, right?\u201d<\/p>\n
Rua and Teixeira combine for almost 50 appearances under the bright lights of the UFC, but Shogun thinks Spaten Fight Night offers something unique if compared to the top MMA promotion. Promoted and funded by one of the world\u2019s largest beverage companies, the martial arts event will air live on TV Globo in Brazil and \u201cdefinitely\u201d give them more exposure.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt really gives us much more exposure than we\u2019re used to in MMA,\u201d Rua said. \u201cIt\u2019s a great opportunity for people to get to know us and to get to know our sport, martial arts. My biggest motivation for fighting at Spaten is to introduce people to martial arts, to the sport, and to who we are.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe UFC is a a promotion event with tremendous exposure today, no doubt about it,\u201d he continued. \u201cIt\u2019s been growing for many years. But I think we\u2019re going to reach people who are used to staying home and have never really watched fights before. I think this is the perfect moment for those of us who fight to show the human side of athletes. That was already my focus in the UFC because we\u2019ve worked so hard to change the perception of this sport, and sometimes things happen that end up hurting its image. My goal is to leave a legacy because a legacy lasts forever. Victory is temporary. You win, you lose, and then it\u2019s in the past. A legacy is forever.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rua said he became \u201caddicted to weightlifting\u201d after his final UFC bout in 2023 but \u201cfighting is in my DNA.\u201d It will be a new experience now with boxing gloves, so he moved to Curitiba to train under Andre Dida and better prepare for it. Walking around 238 pounds now, \u201cShogun\u201d plans to be a bit lighter on Aug. 29.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnyone who knows me knows I\u2019m always looking for the knockout,\u201d Rua said. \u201cGlover is the same way, he\u2019s always looking for the knockout too. No matter who\u2019s fighting, heavyweight fights rarely go the distance.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIn my opinion, we\u2019re even. Neither of us has an advantage [in boxing],\u201d he continued. \u201cMaybe if it were muay Thai I\u2019d have the edge. If it were jiu-jitsu, he\u2019d have the advantage. But in boxing, I don\u2019t think either of us has the upper hand. We\u2019re evenly matched. We\u2019re also almost the same age, and we retired on the same day, so I think everything is pretty even.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former UFC champions Mauricio \u201cShogun\u201d Rua and Glover Teixeira will meet in a boxing match in Sao Paulo,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":670105,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,6102,913,101,715,914,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-670104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-boxing-news","tag-latest-news","tag-sports","tag-ufc","tag-ufc-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=670104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670104\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/670105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=670104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=670104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=670104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}