Shogun in his Pride form was aggressive with his Muay Thai and he took risks. Machida does pretty well at avoiding any real damage while being pressed and he makes his opponent pay in the process. Shogun does have a really good ground game (not counting the Griffin fight since his torn ACL prevented him from gettin the proper training/roadwork in and he gassed himself into submission), Shogun does have pretty good takedowns, not wrestling based takedowns, but an array of leg trips and sweeps that he has used pretty well in the past. On the ground Shogun has a better chance if he can get it there early, not just with his submissions, he is hard to shake and can probably utilize his BJJ positioning to inflict some damage with punches. He has trained with Machida in the past and he assured that he dosen't want to take this fight to the ground, but I really don't honestly think he is just gonna try to take him out standing. Although Shogun has brought in all kinds of national Karate champions in, and he even brought in the guy who fought Machida in the Brazilian National finals (he lost though). It would be wise for Rua to get the fight to the mat, he has always been vulnerable to straight punches, hopefully after he eats a few he'll realize that.
