Mauricio “Shogun” Rua had a pretty rough weekend, with a loss to Chael Sonnen via submission. It is not something that we’d expect to see from a fighter like Shogun, who was at one time considered to be the best Light Heavyweight in the world, but it happened and we very much live in a post-Shogun knee surgery world right now, so it isn’t that surprising. According to his brother, Murilo “Ninja” Rua, though, there were some issues with his training camp going into the fight.
“I was surprised. In my opinion, Mauricio played the wrong game. He should’ve moved more to avoid the takedowns. Fighting on half guard against a wrestler isn’t a good strategy. He should have brought Chael to his guard when he got taken down, tried to sweep him or land some punches. But Sonnen got his neck, unfortunately.
“My brother needs someone, he needs a head coach who can listen to,” he said. “I always told him the truth no matter what, but I had issues with trainers from his camp. Maybe in the future I’ll work with him again, who knows. I’ll talk to him when he returns to Curitiba.
“He has a lot of shady persons around him, people trying to take advantage of him,” he said. “People from his camp said I wasn’t good for Mauricio because I made him nervous when I was on his corner, and he listened to that, so I decided to leave. If something is wrong I would point it out, I wouldn’t just lie to please him.”