UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Mauricio “Shogun” Rua makes his return to the UFC Octagon at tonight’s UFC 128, after ten long months and recovery from yet another knee surgery against favored challenger Jon “Bones” Jones. 

Jones comes into this fight a favorite for the betting odds and with a lot of hype behind him. He has clearly dominated every single opponent he’s faced. Among the list of recent victim’s to Jones’ unorthodox style is Ryan Bader, Vladimir Matyushenko and Brandon Vera. Jones has looked amazing in the last year. He possesses great wrestling, strange and unorthodox stand up, and the longest reach in the UFC. Anybody watching his career in the last year can see why he given the title shot. At this moment, Jones seems like the future of the light heavyweight division.

What people seem to forget is that Mauricio Rua, at 29 years of age, is no old man himself. At Jones’ current age of 23, Rua went on to win the 2005 PRIDE Middleweight Grand Prix, knocking Ricardo Arona and current Strikeforce Heavyweight Champion Alistair Overeem out on the same night. During the Grand Prix, he also defeated current UFC fighters Antonio Rogerio Noguiera and former champ Quinton “Rampage” Jackson. After losing his UFC debut at UFC 76 against Forrest Griffin, he went on to dominate Mark Coleman, knocked Chuck Liddell out, and lost one of the most controversial decisions in MMA history to Lyoto Machida. The decision was so controversial, that the frustrated Rua got an immediate title rematch and he took the title by storm, knocking Lyoto Machida out in three and a half minutes and becoming the first man to put a loss on Lyoto Machida’s record.

The point is that Rua is no stranger to facing invincible fighters. Rua comes into the fight far more tested than Jones has ever been. Jones has never been pressured and has one top ten win to his name (Ryan Bader). Shogun has shown that he can come back after a layoff and still fight like the Shogun Rua we all remember. Is Jones’ hyped justified? Or is Shogun unfairly overlooked?

Shogun Rua faces off with Jon Jones in the main event of UFC 128 March 19th in New Jersey.