Mauricio 'Shogun' Rua Claims He Is 100 Percent for UFC 134

ESPN has a blog post from Mauricio Rua titled "In His Own Words," which is hilarious because the extent of "Shogun's" English speaking has been limited to "Thank you everybody! I love Canada!" (Rua knocked out Lyoto Machida in Montreal.) So, these are, in all likelihood, not his own words. They are likely his words after having been translated from Portuguese to English, and then cleaned up by the editorial staff at ESPN. Hell, they may just be the words of his PR staff.

In any event, "Shogun" talks about his upcoming fight with Forrest Griffin, losing his title to Jon Jones, and the retirement of his brother, Murilo "Ninja" Rua. Here's what "Shogun" has to say about his surgically-repaired knees:

Some people think I was out of shape and are worried about my knees still being hurt after I had so much trouble with them. That isn't the case -- there's nothing wrong with my knees, and they were 100 percent ready for that fight, as it was all cleared by the doctor. We made the biggest effort in doing my rehab as perfectly as possible and the UFC was kind enough to let me come back on a date that was proper to do it, according to the doctors. I have no injury excuses.

As a professional fighter, you always have some injuries, even if they are minor. It's impossible, or very rare, to go through a camp without any pain. Right now I'm 100 percent, without any injuries and ready to go, but we always have to work around pain and work around injuries, and as a fighter you are always trying to make the best of it.

"Shogun's" loss to Forrest Griffin at UFC 76 wasn't the result of the direct effects of his knee injury, thought it may have played a part. It was Rua's inability to condition properly that had the biggest impact. "Shogun" exhausted himself by the eight minute mark of that fight, reduced to literally diving at Griffin's ankles in a desperate attempt at a takedown.