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Dana: "Shogun would rather be cut than fight Teixeira"

7K views 95 replies 43 participants last post by  Stapler 
#1 ·
SUNRISE, Fla. – To hear Dana White tell it, Mauricio "Shogun" Rua really doesn't want to fight Glover Teixeira.

That news came out earlier this month. But on Friday, White expanded on Rua's decision to turn down a fight with the new UFC light heavyweight prospect – saying the former champion was even willing to be released from the organization rather than take a fight with Teixeira.

"He would rather be cut than fight him," White told a small group of reporters following Friday's post-fight press conference for UFC on FX 3.

Rua was scheduled to face Thiago Silva at UFC 149 next month, but Silva fell off the card with an injury. And as MMAjunkie.com first reported earlier this month, the UFC asked Rua to take on fellow Brazilian Teixeira, who last month debuted in the promotion with a first-round submission of Kyle Kingsbury to extend his winning streak to 16.

With Rua turning down that fight, he was shifted earlier this week to the headlining spot on UFC on FOX 4 in August, where he'll now meet Brandon Vera.

"No (I'm not OK with him saying that)," White said. "But you know what? It's one of those very weird situations to hear one of the top five guys in the world say, 'I'd rather be cut than fight a guy who isn't ranked,' and the reason they were saying that was, 'Oh, he's not top 10.' But then we offered him Brandon Vera and he took it in two seconds – and Vera isn't top 10 either."

The new situation does have some benefits, White said. With a previous UFC on FOX 4 headlining fight between Brian Stann and Hector Lombard falling off with a Stann injury, White can now headline the next FOX broadcast with Rua, who has not fought since a November loss to Dan Henderson at UFC 139 that was instantly regarded as an all-time classic.

"Shogun's on free TV (now), and he's coming off one of the greatest fights ever in mixed martial arts history," White told MMAjunkie.com.

But the whole situation still appears to have left White a little baffled at Rua and his team's stance on turning the proposed Teixeira fight down – especially with the threat of a possible pink slip.

"The reality is, Shogun is a guy whom I respect," White said. "The guy's been through a million wars with all the best guys in the world. But for some reason, he does not wanna fight this dude Glover. And you know me – if you don't want me to tell the truth, don't say stuff to me on the phone. That's exactly what happened. That's exactly the way it went down. And me and Lorenzo (Fertitta) said, 'Look, you can't turn down fights at this level. The money you're making and where you are ranked in the world, you don't turn down fights at this level. We might have to cut you.' He said, 'I'd rather be cut than fight him.'"

Rua, of course, has not been cut and will fight Vera in August, perhaps leaving White and the UFC brass wondering about a fight that might have been. Teixeira still does not have his next fight booked, but quickly jumped onto the mainstream radar with his win over Kingsbury at UFC 146.
Source: MMAjunkie.com
 
#92 ·
LOL thread...
Had me smilling for 5 minutes.

Annyway, to add my contribution to this: i see this very simple: if Shogun turned down the Teixeira fight, because Teixeira doesn't hold much name value...he should have definitely turned down Brandon Vera, for the same reason.

As far as i'm concerned Vera is/should be ranked lower than Teixeira...or at pretty much the same position.

It's extremely hard to make a case for Vera being a TOP 20 LHW...TOP 15 is taking it into imagination land.

Teixeira's story sound a bit like Lombard's, but he doesn't have the same name recognition, because he hasn't fought in the US.

Lombard - 5 years/23 fight unbeaten run.
Teixeira * 6 years/17 fight unbeaten run.

Both of them have fought guys who are considered lower ranked...or even cans by some.

The difference is Lombard has fought in the US a lot, while Teixeira hasn't, therefore he is more recognised by the average MMA fan.
And the average fan is the one the UFC is hinting at right now.

To end this, i just feel Shogun is ducking Teixeira. And i also believe he lost some fans or some respect because of this.
 
#94 ·
Just got done reading this thread and I have to say that Roflcopters posts in here are genuinely some of the worst, most disrespectful, ludicrous posts I have ever seen.

How can you have the audacity to call one of the greatest LHW's of all time a fraud. Show some respect for crying out loud.
 
#96 ·
I knew who Teixeira was. I've been wanting the UFC to sign him for a long time. Even I was almost offended that a few sites were picking Kingsbury to beat him. Those were some very laughable polls. It was obviously a gimme fight for him.

Teixeira has had rough times with his green card issues, and really should have been a name already to all fans. The UFC has wanted him for a while. Even back in 2006, he should have been a name. People were so infatuated with Sokoudjou, and even had signatures on forums hyping him up like he was the next #1 p4p fighter.

All of his hype coming from him demolishing Lil Nog and Arona, yet people failed to notice that only one fight before those fights, Sokoudjou got demolished himself against Teixeira. Sokoudjous win over Nog came only 4 months after his loss to Teixeira, but Teixeira got no props for his win over this (at the time) new top prospect once Sokoudjou bursted on the screen. Even Liddell mentioned it when asked about Sokoudjou. He implied that he didn't follow the hype because shortly before his run, his team mate Glover put a beat down on him. He knew Sokoudjou had some flaws in his game.

I know that was a long time ago, and Liddell turned out to be right about Sokoudjou, and now we know it wasn't exactly a big win for Glover, but at the time it should have been, and it was just weird that people ignored Sokoudjous record and the hardcore fans looked passed the guy who beat him just as easily as he beat some top contenders, and you can't give me the argument that Sokoudjou "could have improved tremendously in .... 4 months."

My rant is over, I think I had that bottled down for 6 years, haha. Anyways, Teixiera has had bad luck in terms of getting potential name recognition. I see him getting that soon. He may even gain some right now because of this whole situation regarding him and Shogun. Any publicity is good publicity popularity wise.
 
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