Written by Jason Gittens Friday, 15 June 2012 10:14
Mauricio 'Shogun' Rua has been publicly criticized lately since he allegedly turned down a fight with UFC newcomer Glover Teixeira who had just recently smashed his way violently onto the UFC scene against Kyle Kingsbury at UFC 146.
The criticism was sparked when the UFC had offered Rua the Teixeira Fight to replace Thiago Silva who was injured in training. Rua's decision to accept a fight with low level Brandon Vera instead of Teixeira was what sparked the debate, it seemed to many that he was ducking Teixeira. But according to Rua, that's simply not the case.
In an interview with Rua via TATAME.com, Rua explained his decision.
Despite all the mess about who you are fighting against, there was a rumor about you declining a fight with Glover Teixeira, which made Dana White mad. What really happened?They asked me to fight Glover, my manager told me and then I talked to my team and we decided not to fight Glover because he's a top guy but, but he's building a career in the UFC. He fought once and it was on an undercard, so it's not fair. I made it clear that it wasn't interesting for us now. But in a while it may happen, but not now.
Is your goal now to have a title shot?
Actually everyone wants it. It's not interesting for me right now. Maybe in the future... If I defeated him I wouldn't reach a level of having a chance at the title. He's a top guy, but he just got here and doesn't have a history in the UFC. Three, four fights from now it's possible, but not now. Dana White commented I rather leave UFC than fighting him but it was not true. UFC never thought about it neither did I. At any point I said I would leave in case I fought him. I just said it was not interesting right now and that's why we had our agreement. This conversation never happened.
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