UFC 128 – Mauricio “Shogun” Rua reveals he didn’t have to change that much for Jones, unconcerned by knee injury

UFC light heavyweight champion, Mauricio “Shogun” Rua has been speaking about how he had to adapt his training camp when Jon Jones stepped up to the plate at short notice to fight him ahead of UFC 128 on March 19^th, explaining all he really had to do was bring in bigger training partners to work with.
Speaking during this weeks media conference call, “Shogun” said:

“I feel that both Rashad Evans and Jon Jones are somewhat similar in many senses because they are both very good strikers and very good wrestlers. I had to change my sparring partners for the fight, getting some guys who are bigger with bigger reach and all that but their games still have some things in common so we didn’t have to change that much.”

“He’s certainly a very tall guy with a very big reach and it’s hard to find the sparring partners of his size. But we did the best and found some big guys to help out and they are, they have been imitating Jon Jones and been able to adapt my game and hopefully I’ll be able to do my thing in the Octagon.”

“Jon Jones is a very complete fighter. He is good in all areas. He has especially great wrestling. I always saw him as a very complete fighter, good in standing up, good on the ground and good in wrestling. There is not really one weapon to be concerned most, you have to train everything to fight him, I have to be prepared in all areas and that’s what I’m doing. Training Muay Thai, jiu-jitsu, wrestling and everything but if I had to point something out I would say his wrestling is his strongest point.”

“I feel very happy being the champion. It was my goal and something I worked for my whole life. I don’t really care about the betting lines, it just serves as motivation. I just feel I’m obligated to do my best.”

When asked about how his recent knee injury, something that ultimately required surgery, should impact his performance during the fight, Rua said:

“It doesn’t really bother me because if you look at it, I’ll be sidelined for about 10 months but it was almost the same difference between the first Machida fight and the second Machida fight. I’m pretty tranquil about it because I know I’m going to fight a guy who is a very good fighter like Jon Jones but I have been training hard and I know that I’m well prepared for the test.”

“Shogun” will return to action after a ten month layoff following knee surgery, the same injury that significantly affected his performances just a couple of years ago leading to a loss to Forrest Griffin and a close run fight against Mark Coleman. Will he return and be the devastating striker we all witnessed capture the light heavyweight gold from Lyoto Machida?