Why Shogun Rua-Mark Coleman Is an Impossible Fight To Call

Picking winners is in the blood of every sports fan. Picking a fight is what every MMA fan does. You can't deny it. Every time you watch an MMA event, you may not voice your opinion, but you're secretly pulling for somebody.

Over the past few months, I've read numerous articles and heard hundreds of people state who they think will win. An overwhelming percentage of those people pick Shogun Rua by bloody murder.

Okay, maybe not everybody picked bloody murder as the way of victory, but nobody seemed to give Mark Coleman a shot. But that left me with one question: How could you honestly pick this fight?

The main reason why people pick against Coleman seems to be age and the fact that he hasn't fought in over two years. I'm here to tell you those reasons are stupid.

First up is his age. At 44 years old, Coleman is looking to be only the second UFC Hall of Famer to be inducted and then win inside the octagon. The only other man to do it is Randy Couture, and he was 44 years old when he absolutely destroyed Gabriel Gonzaga.

Now I'm not saying Mark Coleman drinks from the same fountain of youth as Randy, I'm just saying calling age into question is dumb.

Next up is the fact that he hasn't fought in two years. Okay, what the hell does that mean. It's not like he lost to Fedor and then walked away. It's not like he's not training just as hard, if not harder, than Shogun.

If ring rust is seen as a factor, why isn't Rua's taken into consideration? He hasn't fought since his September 2007 loss to Forrest Griffin—a fight that made Rua look over-hyped and over the hill, even though he's only 27.

Mark Coleman is a legend. He has only eight losses in 13 years of work. Let me read the names off to you. Fedor (twice), Cro Cop, Nog, Rizzo (in his prime), Pete Williams (when he was good), Maurice Smith (former UFC HW champ), and some guy named Nobuhiko Takada.

You've got at least four Hall of Famers in their. His losses should be taken with a grain of salt.

Notice how Shoguns name wasn't mentioned there. Coleman has a victory over Rua. Albeit the fight was stopped after Rua broke his arm, a win is a win.

Now how can you seriously pick a winner, when neither man has fought within the last year? For all you know, Rua could come in in horrible shape. He could come in looking for revenge and do something stupid.

He could find himself on his back with the creator of the ground-and-pound on top of him teeing off like a man his age should be doing.

With all fights come numerous of variables, yet some of us can take those into consideration and still pick a winner. But this fight comes with more variables than any fight I've ever seen. Ring rust, age, and not having seen either man fight in 2008 kills any chance of a sane and confident pick.

Of course, fanboys and stubborn know-it-alls will attempt to do so, but I won't. All I can tell you is that I will be watching, and as soon as it's over, all my friends will be calling me and uttering the most annoying words in the world..."I told you so".