After UFC 255, UFC President Dana White urged Marucio Rua to retire after suffering a beating at the hands of Paul Craig. Now, Dana has confirmed to fans that Shogun has officially retired from the sport of mixed martial arts.
Dana says Shogun Retired
Dana recently conducted a Q&A session on the ESPN+ platform. During the live stream, the UFC President fielded questions from fans and members of the sport. One of the many topics that arose was the career of Shogun Rua.
I don’t know if it was a slip up, but Dana White just indicated Shogun Rua is retired on the ESPN+ livestream Q&A #UFCFightIsland
— Nolan King (@mma_kings) January 6, 2021
“I don’t know if it was a slip-up, but Dana White just indicated Shogun Rua is retired on the ESPN+ livestream Q&A,” wrote MMA Junkie’s Nolan King via Twitter.
The Brazillian faced Paul Craig in a rematch at UFC 257. During their first encounter, both men fought an extremely close fight which ultimately ended up resulting in a draw. However, during the rematch, Craig was able to easily dismantle Rua. Craig was able to get his revenge by way of a TKO victory in the second round.
In the opinion of Dana, Rua was a shell of himself during his last fight. Which, was revealed during the UFC 255 post-fight press conference.
“I hope that tonight is his last night – I would like to see him retire,” White told reporters at the UFC 255 post-fight news conference. “Just being honest: ‘Shogun’ didn’t look like ‘Shogun’ to me tonight. ‘Shogun’ looked old and like a shell of his former self tonight. So yeah, I’d like to see him hang it up, hopefully.”
On the Decline
Shogun Rua is currently 39 years old. While Rua isn’t on a losing streak, Dana was able to observe the performance and compare it to all of Shogun’s performances over the last 18 years.
Rua tapped to strikes, raising concern to the White and the promotion.
Now that Shogun has retired, what are fans’ favorite MMA moments from the Brazillian legend?
