Mauricio “Shogun” Rua hasn’t had the best transition into the UFC from PRIDE. After a surprising submission loss to Forrest Grifin, Rua took nearly 15 minutes to TKO an aging Mark Coleman at UFC 93. The performance was lackluster at best, and questions as to Shogun’s dedication were rampant.

It is important to note that Rua has been battling injury for a while (knee), and he was not exactly in the best situation to train properly for Griffin nor Coleman. Now, more than ever, the former PRIDE champ must show he’s still relevant.

In a recent call to promote UFC 97, Mauricio had the following to say…

“When I fought Coleman, like it or not I stayed almost a year and a half on the sidelines and that took a lot out of my training and conditioning. I can say that right now I’m feeling much more prepared physically and psychologically for this fight against Chuck.

…Sometimes when we’re at home we get a little distracted and don’t push ourselves to the limit. So I think moving to a new place to train got me 100% focused on the fight and I can tell that I feel much more prepared and in condition for this fight.”

So, which Shogun can we expect to see next Saturday? In any case, his opponent is a hungry Chuck Liddell, and that’s the definition of dangerous.