PHOENIX – If all goes according to plan, Mauricio Rua wants to hang up his gloves by the end of the year.
Rua (27-12-1 MMA, 11-10-1 UFC), 40, rematches Ovince Saint Preux (25-16 MMA, 13-11 UFC) on Saturday’s UFC 274 main card that airs on pay-per-view following prelims on ESPN and ESPN+.
The former Pride middleweight grand prix winner and former UFC light heavyweight champion has put together a Hall of Fame career and looks to compete two more times before retiring.
“I already made up my mind, I want to do two fights; this one and one last, and then retire,” Rua told reporters, including MMA Junkie, at Wednesday’s media day. “That’s what I put as a goal and hopefully maybe who knows, I can do both this year and then retire in 2022, but you never know. Either way, I want to do two fights and retire.”
Rua will look to avenge his knockout loss to Saint Preux in November 2014, which only lasted 34 seconds in the main event in his home country of Brazil. Despite a rematch taking over seven years to materialize, “Shogun” had an inkling that it would eventually happen.
“Actually we were supposed to fight before so we did the first fight in 2014 and then later the UFC wanted to do the rematch,” Rua said. “We almost fought some years ago, I think it was 2017 in Japan, but I got injured and the fight couldn’t happen so you never know what’s gonna happen. It was something that was there to happen eventually and thank God the UFC wanted it, we talked about it and it’s now going to take place so I’m excited. I’m motivated for it.”
‘Shogun’ Rua plans two more fights, including UFC 274 before retirement
