After
suffering an elbow injury in his last fight against Paul Craig
at UFC 255 in November 2020, Mauricio Rua
elected not to undergo surgery.
“It was the same place I injured against [Mark] Coleman in Pride,”
Rua said. “My doctor thought it was better to recover without
surgery and that’s what I did. Last August I started to train and
now I feel 100 percent, so I´ll ask my manager Eduardo Alonso to
set my next fight by March.”
“Shogun” revealed that his plan is to have two more fights before
retiring from MMA. He is also interested in the prospect of facing
longtime Brazilian Top Team rival Ricardo
Arona under submission rules.
“I´m driven by challenges,” Rua said. “My focus is totally on the
UFC. I want to fight twice more. But if ADCC or another grappling
event promoter invited me to face Arona in submission rules, with
all the respect I have for him, I would accept that offer and would
fight to win.”
As far as the top of the UFC light heavyweight division, Rua favors
reigning champion Glover
Teixeira against Jiri
Prochazka.
“I believe he will take Jiri down and submit him,” Rua said.
Rua likes Jon Jones, who
took the light heavyweight belt from him in 2011, to eventually
become heavyweight champion when he makes his UFC return.
“Jon Jones is very intelligent, versatile and already has the
biggest reach in the UFC,” Rua said. “Once he puts on enough weight
to compete at heavyweight, I believe he will be the man to beat in
his new division.”