Maurício Rua

Rua is of Italian and Portuguese ancestry and was born and reared in Curitiba, Brazil. Rua’s mother is a marathon runner who was formerly a track athlete, while his father is a businessman. Murilo, also known as Ninja, was his older brother and was born in 1980. His younger brother is Marcos (nicknamed Shaolin).

Though Marcos does not engage in professional competition, both mixed martial artists train there. The Rua boys and their mother occasionally run 10 kilometers. At the age of six, Rua started learning Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and at seven, he started Muay Thai. Rua completed his training at the Chute Boxe Academy after his older brother and achieved blue and purple belt victories in BJJ competitions. He currently practices boxing and wrestling in addition to Muay Thai and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

Rua began his professional career at vale tudo competitions in Brazil, where he earned three stoppages due to strikes and defeated Evangelista Santos, a future colleague at Chute Boxe Academy. Santos and Rua engaged in brisk combat until Rua knocked Santos to the ground and stopped the fight with blows from mount. Shogun then participated in the Global Domination Tournament of the International Fighting Championships (IFC). Rua defeated Erik Wanderlei in his first fight by punches, but Renato Sobral’s guillotine in the third round of their second fight resulted in Rua’s first career submission loss.

Shogun traveled to Japan after winning the IFC championship in order to join the PRIDE organization. At the first PRIDE Bushido 1, a separate event for lighter combatants, he made his PRIDE debut. Rua won all three of his first-round strikes against Akira Shoji, Akihiro Gono, and Yasuhito Namekawa in his three Bushido matches. At PRIDE 29, Rua advanced to make his major PRIDE event debut against the strong Japanese fighter and former professional wrestler Hiromitsu Kanehara. In the opening round, Rua stomped Kanehara to victory.

He went into the Middleweight Grand Prix competition for PRIDE 2005 as an underdog. While Ricardo Arona defeated Wanderlei Silva, a teammate of Rua, by decision, Rua defeated Alistair Overeem by TKO in the opening round. The tournament’s final match pitted Rua and Arona against one another. Rua knocked Arona out with punches at 2:54 in the first round to win the fight and claim the title of 2005 Middleweight Grand Prix Champion.

He tapped out French kickboxer Cyrille Diabate at PRIDE Final Conflict Absolute after being stomped. His lone submission victory came at Pride 32 when he knee-barred former UFC Heavyweight Champion Kevin Randleman at 2:35 of the first frame. He fought Alistair Overeem again at Pride 33, when he defeated the Dutchman at 3:37 in the first round. This was his final PRIDE outing.

On September 22, 2007, Mauricio Rua faced off in the octagon for the first time against Forest Griffin at UFC 76. In the third round, Rua was submitted and the bout was over. On October 24, 2009, at UFC 104, “Shogun” competed against Lyoto Machida for the UFC light heavyweight championship but lost by unanimous decision.

On May 8, 2010, Lyoto Machida was knocked out by Rua, who then went on to win the UFC light heavyweight championship. Jon Jones defeated Mauricio Rua for the UFC light heavyweight championship at UFC 128 on March 19, 2011. The fight ended with a technical knockout for Jones. At UFC 274 on May 7, 2022, Mauricio Rua and Ovince Saint Preux also squared off. Rua was defeated by the decision.

At UFC 283, Rua took against Ihor Potieria on January 21, 2023. During the post-fight interview, Rua declared his retirement after being defeated in the first round via technical knockout.