HELP: Rua vs. Coleman, Why Should I Care?
By Curtis Clontz on Jan 07, 2009
January 17th contains a hand full of exciting match ups that fans are anticipating. One of which, I can’t seem to get pumped up about. I am as interested in seeing the Mark Coleman vs. Shogun Rua fight as I am to see a rematch of Warren Sapp vs. Michael Phelps race in the pool, or seeing another hockey guy resort to biting (or any hockey to be frank). I find it funny that fans continue to talk about this fight. Sure both fighters are big names, and they have at one time been at the top of the sport, but lets be honest this fight means nothing.
Mauricio “Shogun” Rua (WHO-UHH) was supposed to come over from Pride and add to the incredible 205 pound division. He was supposed to push everyone for the title and make his presence felt immediately. He was also supposed to beat Forrest Griffin. That is a lot of things that was supposed to happen but didn’t. Rua hasn’t won a fight in almost 2 years. He is winless in the UFC, and is not on anyones scope of the title picture. His most impressive call to fame is his 8 consecutive wins in Pride, until he faced an American named Mark Coleman. I was never truly a fan of Rua back in the day, and he still hasn’t won me over. I for some reason always see him as the Chute Boxe step brother to Wanderlei Silva.
Mark Coleman is a UFC Hall of Famer. He has fought some of the old school greats of the game, and is trying to push back into title contention. The Hammer House fighter hasn’t fought since October of 2006 and hasn’t won since beating Rua in 2006. He is in a similar position as Randy Couture recently was in. It almost seems like he is in a no win situation against Rua. If he wins, he will have defeated another one of those fallen heroes. A loss throws up the retirement flag. In life there is often a fine line between being old and seasoned, Coleman is flirting with it.
I am greatly anticipating the comments to this post. I am hoping that Vee or someone can produce some sort of an exciting argument to get me looking forward to this fight. In the next week I will be doing my Breakdown UFC 93: Mauricio Rua vs. Mark Coleman and I need to be pumped and ready for the match up. Until that time I will be watching the countless Rich Franklin and Dan Henderson videos that are floating all around the net.
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Simply put Curtis, this is a fight not about rankings or a title, this is a revenge fight for Shogun. The broken arm suffered while trying to stuff a takedown ended the fight officially, but it carried out in the ring between The Hammer House and Chute Boxe. It was emotional the it was a war between two camps (which had some history before with Rua tapping Randleman at Pride 32).
This is kind of similar to Chuck Liddell’s revenge tour (as I call it) when he went back to his old foes and wanted to beat the men who beat him before (Couture, Horn, and unsuccessfully against Rampage). Shogun (with the help of Joe Silva/Dana White) is setting up a revenge tour of his own, and will probably face Forrest again sometime down the road (that’s a big money fight IMO). Plus Shogun is finally healthy (he didn’t look like himself against Forrest) and will face somebody he wants to rip apart.
Curtis, tune into this fight if you want to see drama, emotion, and rage. Because Shogun is ready to rip Mark Coleman apart, and Mark wants to show that he can beat Shogun again, this time in the UFC. Rematches in which the first fight ends in controversy are always worth watching because we will find out who is the better fighter. Along with Franklin/Henderson, this is definately a card worth watching. It’s not the biggest UFC card, but it’s not Bisping vs. Leben or Bisping vs. Evans.
Nicely said Angelo. After watching Rua get beaten down by Griffin, I felt like he lost his aura as the Chute Boxe guy in the UFC that would dominate. Maybe he’s back. We shall find out.
Hey Curtis, I totally ignored this post because I agree all the way.
Here’s a real question to consider.
Outside of the possible Brock Lesnar-Mark Coleman match-up, which I think was a possible freebie win for Lesnar, would the UFC offer Mark Coleman a match? This fight isn’t really personal for Mark Coleman. Shogun fought four times after the injury. Was he really campaigning for an immediate rematch? The emotion and drama of the match was really between Chute Boxe and Hammer House entourage. A huge misunderstanding.
End result. If Coleman loses, he simply loses. He’s over 40. He’s not in his prime like Shogun in his twenties. If he wins? How long does realistically expects to compete? At 205 or heavy-weight?
If Shogun loses, it looks really bad for him. REally bad. Although I should say, some times returning to action from an injury can prove to be quite difficult because you will second guess your abilities. If he wins, he simply beat a 40+ year-old veteran on his way out.
Mark Coleman 15 – 8
Randy Couture 16 – 9
Same difference.
I am definitely interested in this fight. I want a winner determined since we did not get an actual “winner” in the last go around. The Hammer House and Chute Boxe rivalry was big because of the injury to Rua. The real question is…which Rua is going to show up? The one that has been lackluster and sites injuries as the cause or the dominant 205er people want to return to form? Coleman…still an imposing figure. Age could be a factor, but, he is in great condition at his age and I don’t see him coming in this fight less than 100%. Good luck to both.