UFC 93 Results Mauricio Rua (17-3-0) TKOs Mark Coleman (15-9-0) in 3rd Round: UFC 93 will forever be remembered as the fight card that didn’t really live up to its “dream” hype. As a matter of fact, it was an atrocious night of fights, none worse than Rua-Coleman, as the UFC should be beside itself and ashamed. Not only were the quality of the bouts subpar, but more disturbing was the conditioning some of these fighters showed up in, once again, none worse than Shogun-Hammer.
Not exactly the way the UFC envisioned to kickoff the New Year. Put more sorry MMA events like that together and the “T-shirt Company”, as Dana White likes to refer to Affliction, might just make you look ridiculous. 
In the “co-main event of the evening” 27-year-old Mauricio “Shogun” Rua [-400] took on 44-year-old, Mark “The Hammer” Coleman [+250] in a fight which the average person wouldn’t have been able to tell who was the 27-year-old and who was 44. “One of the top light heavyweights in the world”, was something Shogun couldn’t even pretend to be in this fight against a washed out Coleman.
In fact, I have way more respect for the way Coleman performed and hung in there, against a guy 17 years younger, that was gassed after the first 3 minutes of the fight. Now, I’m not referring to an action packed, crazy, balls to the wall, opening round, where both fighters exhausted themselves putting on a gutsy start; sure, it was the best round of the fight, but nothing could be further from the truth.
So they had a bad day, I thought. But when I heard that UFC president Dana White had named the Rua-Coleman bout “Co-Fight-of-the-Night” I was beside myself. He must have seen a different fight! To receive a $40,000 bonus for the absolute worse performance of your career isn’t exactly justifiable incentives. As a fellow writer stated, “If Rua were an honest man, he’d have declined the check from White because he neither deserved nor earned it,” that’s the truth!
After the fight, Rua tried to explain: “I stayed sidelined for one year and a half,” he said. “I went through surgeries. That is not easy, and that took a lot of my conditioning. It’s one thing to train and another thing to fight. When you get back to fighting, you have to get back your rhythm. I paid a price for that, but I’m sure that by my next fight, I’ll be more prepared and in better shape, with better conditioning, to give my fans a great show.”
As a proffesional fighter, your job is to make weight and to be in shape to compete at whatever level you are getting paid to compete in. And if for some extinuating circumnstances you are not fit to fight, then stay off the octagon, but don't embarras youself and the Company you represent. Furthermore, don't have people spend their hard-earned money to watch something like what Rua-Coleman and UFC 93 ended up being, especially with the state of the economy in this country. Otherwise, you'll end up being compared to EliteXC.
