Shogun gives his thoughts on who will win between Rampage and Rashad
Posted on May 13, 2010, 05:06 PM by Daniel CassidyUFC 114 is only just over two weeks away, but already the tension is buliding. Both fighters have engaged in a war of words that even Chael Sonnen would be jealous of, and the stakes are heating up, now we know the winner will get a title shot against the new lightheavyweight champion Mauricio Rua. While the fight is undoubtedly a close call, with many mma fans split down the middle, even Shogun finds it difficult to call this one:
We don't work so hard all year around, we have phases of training, it's like a cycle. My team always takes care of everything but definitely, it's going to be a new challenge for me to defend that belt, because it was a dream come true, I conquered it, and now I'm going to work on my mind to keep my motivation. It can be bad for me but I'm going to work hard so it doesn't affect my performances. I think Rampage [will win], but it's close to 50/50 to me. I'd say 55% for Rampage, 45% Rashad. To me Rampage or Rashad, it doesn't make a difference, they are both top fighters. But a fight against Rampage would be good ... for the pay-per-view. I'm a professional fighter, I never pick my opponents, I'd fight anyone. Anderson (Silva) can be a big challenge to my career, but I'm used to them."
Rampage goes into this fight with with two wins since his fight with Forrest Griffin. After the UFC 86 loss, he bounced back with a ko win over Wanderlei Silva in just 201 seconds. Afterwards he defeated Keith Jardine at UFC 96. This will make it 14 months and 2 weeks since his last fight to his upcoming bout.
Unlike Ramage, Rashad has kept more active. He faced off against Thiago Silva in January of this year.
Both fighters will be trying their utmost to make a huge statement at 114, especially with a title fight, as well as huge amounts of ego and pride on the line.
Comments
shogun is the man hes making it well known he is not afraid of the spider
Shogun is great and one of my favorite fighters, but I'm almost 100% sure that Anderson Silva will avenge Machida's loss to Shogun when they fight.
Its gonna be a close one and anyone counting Evans out is cutting themselves short. Not to say Rampage cant knock him out in the first 20 secs, cause he can........Just as I feel Evans can do the same to Rampage. Evans has great technical wrestling skills and hand speed....... Rampage has the pro-wrestling, slam you on your head type abilities and has the edge in knock-out strength. Ive been waiting for this one a LONG time. This is one of those events that even the casual fight fan is excited to see. Two big names with big personalities are gonna go to war, may the best man win!!
Just curious stickin when have you ever seen Rampage KO'd with one punch?
Now Rashad was not only brutaly KO'd by Machida, the first decent punch from Thiago that landed almost put Rashad out.That my friend will be the deciding factor.
Shogun vs Anderson
that fight is gonna lose relevance after a one chael sonnen grinds out an ugly 5 round decision of supreme wrestling and g and p to become the new mw champ, t
i would love to see silva and shogun go at it, i think that if anybody can beat silva its shogun
If anybody can beat shogun its Anderson silva :P
Rampage destroys Rashad. Then Shogun destroys Rampage. Then Anderson Silva come in and if he doesn't act like he acted with Maia, he will win via decision against shogun. Then Lyoto will fight Rashad again and repeat what he did the first time. And finally Machida will say I know we are good friends but that's my belt and i want it back, and fight Silva.
This guy has it all figured out!
i agree n yh i think kimbo will cum bk a light heavy weight and knock out shogun aswell .....
I know everyone thinks this is gonna be a stand up war becuz these two HATE each other but what if Rashad utilizes his wrestling background.. I think that might give him the edge. Although Im not too familiar with Rampages ground game but im under the impression its not that great
I don't think Rashad could out wrestle Rampage and if he achieves a take down, he wont be able to hold him down and will get punished when Rampage gets up.
Rampage is good on the ground and was able to overcome Dan hendersons Olympic caliber wrestler and was also able to take down chuck Liddell multiple times intheir pride fight in 2003. Just search rampage highlights and watch all of his slams and also look and see how many times rampage has been taken down and kept down... Not many I promise
i want rampage to win but rashad is going to wrestle the shit out of him, out condition him, out box him... but rampage might one shot him and knock him the f### out. either way its going to be a great fight.
a lot of talk sayin who ever wins this will lose to shogun which i guess is a valid point but lets say rampage/rashard fights shogun and wins i wud love to see anderson silva vs rampage/rashard