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Shogun on PRIDE 31
By Zach Arnold | January 26, 2006
Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, the 2005 Middleweight GP tournament champion, has been booked against Mark Coleman on the 2/26 Saitama Super Arena show.
This appears to be Shogun’s test match to see if he would be a good fit in the open-weight GP tournament, which starts on 5/5 at the Osaka Dome. Thoughts?
Topics: All Topics, MMA, PRIDE, Zach Arnold | 9 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Coleman shoots, takes a jumping knee to the face, goes down hard, gets his head stomped on until the referee pulls Shogun away and declares a KO.
I can’t possibly see any other result here.
Besides Coleman’s slow motion Ground-and-Pound attack, he doesn’t bring a lot to the table, and I can’t see Shogun getting caught in that situation.
Well, I can honestly say I can see another result. Coleman shoots, takes Shogun down and lays on him for extended periods of time until it gets stood back up. It goes to a decision. Shogun brings more weapons to the table but Coleman is enough bigger than Shogun to muscle him to the ground. The only time Coleman’s shoot has looked bad was against Cro Cop. And he can make alot of takedown attempts look bac.
I could see it being a close decision.
Granted, unless you know what he’s doing in training you can’t really speak with much authority. That said, based on performance and appearance, Coleman has an immense uphill battle to hold back a young lion on his way to the top. And Coleman is no Couture. He’s not known for his strategy or his ability to drub men almost a decade younger. It’s almost a done deal. Even in the event of a carefully worked result, who would benefit from a Coleman win in the long run? Is there any sense in stalling Rua’s ascent? Bottom line: Coleman’s a tough…old…CAN. Sorry, old soldier, they’re prepping you for the glue factory.
Do not underestimate Coleman. I do not think he will make it easy for Shogun.
I hope Coleman gives a good fight, or this may be faster than his fight with Fedor.
Shogun will have his work cut out for him, but I think he can take it.
If it goes to the ground (which would most likely see Shogun on his back and Coleman on top, in guard position), Shogun may have a decent shot at getting a submission locked onto Coleman. Only if Coleman is able to power out of Shogun’s submissions (and that would take out a good amount of gas each time, and we know how great Coleman’s gas tank is), would he stand a decent chance of winning.
I can’t really see many ways Coleman can beat Shogun in this fight, to be honest. He has an OKish chance of G&Ping Shogun to a decision or TKO stoppage (unlikely, IMO, as Shogun will most likely try to actively go for submissions or better positions and not just take it lying down) and virtually no chance of a submission win, unless he goes for a power submission (and hopefully learned how to apply it properly). Shogun is a lot younger than Coleman’s last big win (Don Frye) was about a decade and a half older than Shogun is at the moment, and while Coleman has passed the 40 year old mark, Shogun is just reaching his (first?) zenith.
Personally, I would have preferred Coleman against James Thompson as I think Coleman has a much greater chance of winning that fight and building himself up a bit so he can put over someone like Shogun in the first round of the HW GP (at least, in theory).
I hate the match. Shogun is coming off winning the MW Grand Prix, and a bad loss to someone like Coleman would hurt him. But, then again, I dislike the Openweight GP tournament altogether.
And Coleman won the fight…