'Shogun' Rua on fan reaction: My loss a 'chance to throw all sorts of jokes and offensive words'

Mauricio Rua apparently doesn’t want to retire, and he even hinted at a potential move down to middleweight, but he said fan reaction to his recent losses can be a little rough.

Rua (22-10 MMA, 6-8 UFC) suffered a 34-second loss to fellow light heavyweight Ovince Saint Preux (17-6 MMA, 5-1 UFC) in this past Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 56 headliner in Brazil. It was an ugly loss for the 32-year-old Brazilian legend (check out the Saint Preux vs. Rua video highlights), who’s now 1-4 in his past five fights.

Following the FOX Sports 1-televised event, MMAjunkie’s Ben Fowlkes explained how many fighters find themselves in this late-career situation, and there are no easy answers.

But Rua, a former UFC light heavyweight champion who was one of PRIDE’s biggest stars after a remarkable 2005 middleweight grand prix win, said some of the feedback has been tough to take. More specifically, though some fans offer constructive criticism, he said others “will take the chance to throw all sorts of jokes and offensive words as possible.”

Although he said he’s got accustomed to such criticism, he believes he was well-prepared for the bout and simply made a technical mistake.

Rua, who will soon coach on “The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil 4? opposite Anderson Silva, discussed it in a recent Facebook post:

I want to have my thanks registered here for all the support on my fight Saturday Night. I want to also thank you guys for all the showings of care and support after the fight.

Losing is always very bad, hurts a lot, but what’s hurting more is to lose without being able to show what I trained, and what I know. Fighting is fighting, and I know very well that in this weight class any punch that connects early on can cost a huge price. For many times in my career I was in the happy side and unfortunately this time I faced the sad side of this story. I know a lot of people will unload harsh words, some will make constructive criticism and others will take the chance to throw all sorts of jokes and offensive words as possible. Unfortunately this is all part of being in the spotlights, and it’s something that we as professional athletes, and mostly in Brazil, have to be always used to deal with.

As much as some will doubt it, I prepared myself a lot for this fight and was well trained, and this is what hurts the most about losing this way, without being able to show what I trained. Those who followed it, trained with me, or saw some of my training knows this. When you lose fighting some rounds, or even some minutes, in some ways it’s less of a suffering cause you were able to show what you got and what you prepared, and it wasn’t enough. But losing this way it’s certainly very frustrating.

I made a techincal mistake, maybe due to anxiety and a big will to get this win in Brazil in such an important moment of my career, and I paid the price. Props to St. Preux, It’s part of the game and he deserved the win.

Now I will rest, enjoy my family and then think about my next steps, TUF Brazil, maybe a weight class change, but I’ll keep on going cause winning is easy, but keep on battling and overcome the obstacles is what makes a true fighter. Thank you all for the support.

For complete coverage of UFC Fight Night 56, check out the UFC Events section of the site.