UFC 93 Breakdown: The Main Card

Mark Coleman vs. Mauricio Rua

Mark “The Hammer” Coleman
Ht/Wt: 6’1/205 lbs.
Age: 44
Hometown: Columbus, Ohio
Fighting out of: Columbus, Ohio
Record: 15-8

The stakes: The latest endeavor from the “Rematches You Never Thought You’d See” department, Coleman will return from a two-year layoff from MMA to take on Rua in a rematch of their infamous 2006 tilt.

The first go-round ended with a freak broken arm for Rua and an unexpected win for the aging Coleman. Now fighting as a light heavyweight for the first time in his career, Coleman has the chance to prove his win was no fluke.

The breakdown: While the style clash remains as lopsided as ever in Rua’s favor, you do have to take into account that the Brazilian wonder is walking around on a pair of bum knees. That’s not to say Coleman is a picture of perfect health either, as he’s coming back from a knee injury of his own.

Like the first time around, Coleman’s only hope is to tackle Rua to the mat round after round and work that old-school Hammer House ground-and-pound one more time for the homies. It’s that or Coleman has to hope Rua’s other arm is ripe for a breaking.

Mauricio “Shogun” Rua Scouting Report
Ht/Wt: 6’1/205 lbs.
Age: 27
Hometown: Curitiba, Brazil
Fighting out of: Curitiba, Brazil
Record: 16-3

The stakes: With the way people talk about Rua now, you’d think he developed leprosy, razed a village and bilked people out of billions in a Ponzi scheme. The fact is that while Rua did look like a shell of his past self in losing to Forrest Griffin, injuries and a frenetic schedule did him no favors in his UFC debut.

Now recovered and rejuvenated, Rua has to hope he can still carve out a spot for himself amongst the UFC light heavyweight elite at a time when the division is overloaded with quality candidates. His best bet is to make an appearance on “The Hills” as the exotic new boyfriend; it does wonders for your image.

The breakdown: Assuming Rua’s knees are not being held together by silly putty and rubber bands, he still has a huge edge on the feet, and while his wrestling likely won’t hold up against Coleman, the actual grappling advantage belongs to Rua.

Of course, assuming anything about Rua’s health is dicey until we see him show the form that made him one of the world’s pound-for-pound elite. Until then, Rua remains an unknown quantity.

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The bottom line: Fights with variables are normally tons of fun but not when all the variables concern who will make it to the cage in one piece. My guess is that Rua will not be his old self anytime soon, but he’ll come close enough to that impossibly high standard to squash Coleman’s hopes of a heartwarming UFC return.

Don’t count on Rua having the wheels to stay upright, though, as an early Coleman double leg leads to a tidy first round submission loss for the always grappling-averse granddaddy of Hammer House.