(Either someone’s getting knocked the f*ck out, or someone’s getting decisioned into a living death.)
Mauricio “Shogun” Rua will finally get his chance to settle the score with Forrest Griffin this summer.
A rematch of their September 2007 UFC 76 bout has reportedly been signed for UFC Rio in August.
GracieMag.com was the first to report the potential match-up that was confirmed with UFC president Dana White today by MMAFighting.com.
Griffin took the first meeting by third-round rear-naked choke, but many fans and analysts feel that Rua’s long layoff from a knee injury left him out of shape for the bout and as such have been clamouring for a rematch.
The win over Shogun was Griffin’s sole stoppage victory in the past three-and-a-half years. Since the fight he is 3-2 including his championship victory over Quinton “Rampage” Jackson at UFC 86 and his championship loss to Rashad Evans at UFC 92. In his last fight Griffin (14-8) defeated Rich Franklin at UFC 126 by unanimous decision.
Shogun (19-5) is also 3-2 since the last time he fought Griffin. Besides a pair of TKO victories over Mark Coleman and Chuck Liddell, he split one championship loss and a win apiece with Lyoto Machida and losing via TKO to Jon Jones to lose the strap he won from “The Dragon” at UFC last May.
The event, which will be the first held in Brazil since
Ultimate Brazil in 1998, will be headlined by another rematch between UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva and longtime contender Yushin Okami. Okami beat Silva in January 2006 at Rumble on the Rock 8 after Anderson was disqualified for an illegal up-kick.
Also rumored to be on the card are UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo, UFC Hall-of-Famer Royce Gracie, onetime UFC heavyweight tournament champion and former light heavyweight champion Vitor Belfort among other Brazilian notables.