Shogun Re-Injures Knee, Forced to Withdraw From UFC 85

Mauricio "Shogun" Rua (16-3 MMA, 0-1 UFC) has re-injured his knee and has been scratched from a UFC 85 main event with Chuck Liddell (21-5 MMA, 16-4 UFC). The news comes from Thomas Gerbasi of UFC.com.

According to the report, Rua ruptured the ACL in his left knee, which is the same injury that forced a surgery after a UFC 76 loss to Forrest Griffin.

UFC 85 takes place June 7 at the O2 Arena in London. The UFC will announce a replacement for Rua "shortly."

The 26-year-old made his octagon debut at UFC 76 and suffered an upset submission loss (via rear-naked choke) to Griffin. Prior to the bout, the Brazilian PRIDE veteran had won 12 of 13 fights. He recently underwent knee surgery but had returned to training earlier this year.

Rua will again go under the knife and there's no timetable for his return to the UFC.

Liddell, who won the UFC's light-heavyweight title at UFC 52, made four successful title defenses before a loss to Quinton Jackson this past May. He then dropped a split decision to Jardine in September for the first back-to-back losses of his career. However, he rebounded for a unanimous-decision victory over Wanderlei Silva in the co-main event of UFC 79 back in December.

There's still plenty of time to find an opponent that's more than just a journeyman. Certainly Liddell wants to get a revenge match against Jardine but he's scheduled to fight Wanderlei Silva at UFC 84. The division is sort of thin at the moment. Had Lyoto Machida not been scheduled to fight Tito Ortiz he could have been a formidable opponent. They could have also plugged in Stephan Bonnar had he not had to have such an extensive rehab for his injured knee.

Nothing has even been discussed but this blogger thinks it could be Rashad Evans stepping in against Liddell.