Twice in his sixteen year career Mauricio Rua has been on top of the MMA world. The first, back in 2005, when he stormed through the PRIDE middleweight Grand Prix – defeating Rampage Jackson, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, Alistair Overeem, and Ricardo Arona in the space of just four months. The second, on May 8th, 2010, when Rua took on then UFC champion Lyoto Machida for the second time, knocking him out in the first round to win the light heavyweight title.
Since those halcyon days, however, success has been a much less consistent commodity. Rua is just 6-6 in the 7 years since losing his belt to MMA great-turned-pariah Jon Jones, while having racked up the first three KO losses of his career (Jones included).