Bonesmania ‘bugs’ Shogun, but in a good way
Mauricio Shogun Rua is a 2-1 underdog and has been almost shunted aside by the media in the buildup to…
Mauricio Shogun Rua is a 2-1 underdog and has been almost shunted aside by the media in the buildup to the fight, as Jones, the UFC’s 23-year-old phenom, has essentially been given top billing.
It was Jones, he of zero championship fights, whom the UFC opted to devote a separate, prime-time special on, not Rua, the reigning champion.
Rua just shrugged when asked if he was bothered by the perceived slights – He has been winning his fights in great fashion and this is a natural consequence of that, Rua said – but Rua’s manager, Eduardo Alonso, believes it has made a change for the better in him.
Rua is, indeed, annoyed at at Bonesmania, Alonso said, but he has used it to his advantage.
I think it does (bug him), but the good thing is, it bugs him in a good way, Alonso said. It brings out his competitiveness and his motivation to prove something to everyone. He’s a very competitive guy. He gets pissed off and wants to prove a point.
When a guy is so talented as Shogun is, they tend to get lazy. Against Rashad, as a team, we were a little more accommodating. It’s not to say Rashad is not a great fighter, but we’d been thinking about him for a year. But then, when they changed it to Jones, it was like, ‘Hmm. There is motivation. We have to work.’ We all got pumped. It’s really for the best for him. He’s focused and he started to train much more. He’s very motivated and the team united.
We had some problems, personal problems within the team, health issues within families, and it was tough. But this brought us back together. Shogun performs best when he’s an underdog and that’s why we’re feeding this whole thing that Jones deserves to be the favorite.