Greatest fight ever? UFN 38's 'Shogun' thinks back on it and feels 'a little sad'

Mauricio Rua doesn’t recall that much about the hours following his first fight with Dan Henderson in 2011.

Rua (22-8 MMA, 6-6 UFC) remembers going to the hospital. He remembers seeing Henderson (29-11 MMA, 6-5 UFC) there. He remembers going back to his hotel room very late that night, or maybe very early the next morning. He remembers feeling “a little sad.”

“It’s never a good night after a loss,” he told MMAjunkie via an interpreter in a recent phone interview.

This surprised me. Not that he’d feel bummed out about losing the decision after five brutal, bloody rounds in San Jose. That makes a certain amount of sense.

But it surprised me that, even now, after it’s been enshrined in MMA lore as one of the best fights of all time, Rua could still look back at one of the greatest nights of his professional life and regard it as a generally melancholy affair.

OK, so you didn’t win. But wasn’t it something? Wasn’t it special?

From the sound of it, not so much. At least not for Rua. He was, he said, “happy to be involved in a fight that people liked so much,” but he thought it should have been a draw. That would have been “the most fair result,” he said.

As for the “greatest fight ever” talk, he seems to appreciate that only as a sort of byproduct, which might explain why you don’t hear him talking about how he can’t wait to kick off Round 6 of his epic war with Henderson when they meet at UFC Fight Night 38 tonight on FOX Sports 1. It’s because, for reasons that make a lot of sense, he’s not necessarily trying for that kind of fight.

“I always try to do my style, and thank God, my style happens to be one that pleases the fans,” Rua said. “But I never really care about those things. I just want to go in there, fight my style, and win.”

That’s why the first fight doesn’t stand out in Rua’s memory quite the way it does in ours. He didn’t win. Those of us outside the cage may think it’s almost beside the point after a fight that thrilling and that close, but to the guy with the loss on his record, it still stings.

There’s also the physical toll to consider. Fights like the one he had with Henderson “take a little out of you,” Rua said. “You need some time to rest and recover afterward. But not all fights are like that. That’s why you can have a long career, because they’re not always like that.”

That’s good news for Rua, who admitted he’d rather not see the inside of the hospital in Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil, tonight if he doesn’t have to. Even if some fans might consider a quick finish a disappointment after the incredible first fight, you’ll have to excuse Rua for being perfectly willing to accept any result that ends with him getting his hand raised.

After all, he just wants to fight his style and win. It’s only a happy accident that his style is so violently captivating for those of us watching from the outside.

For the latest on UFC Fight Night 38, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of the site.

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