Eduardo Alonso, manager of former Light Heavyweight Champion Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, has released an open letter to fans, thanking them for their support and promising that the Brazilian will bounce back strong from his loss to Jon Jones at UFC 128.

“Shogun” was dethroned Saturday night after being overwhelmed by Jones, who was able to out-strike the former champ from start to finish, resulting in a third round TKO stoppage. It was Rua’s first title defense since knocking out Lyoto Machida to take the belt at UFC 113 and followed a ten-month layoff due to a nagging injury that resulted in his third knee surgery.

The letter was originally published via the Underground forum:

My friends,

Everything is still too recent, I was taking my time until I would make a statement, as we are still close to UFC 128. I started to read some of the hundreds of messages on forums, twitter and other media sources, and after addressing the Brazilian public first, I decided to also make a simple statement in the two major MMA forums, Sherdog, which I respect a lot for having an enormous number of fans that support the sport, and the UG, which also has a number of fans and was where I started my life in MMA many years ago.

My goal is simple and clear. I want to thank the support from so many fans to Shogun and our team, before, during and after the fight at UFC 128. I want ALSO to thank a lot to all the critics, being them constructive or not, directed to the fighter and all of us. After UFC 93, I went on the Brazilian forum of Portaldovt and made a similar statement, even bigger, and what we saw after that was an ever improving Shogun from fight to fight, in a route that led him to the belt of what is probably the toughest weight class and more challenging one in the promotion. So obviously, critics are welcome, as well as all the support.

With all that said, excuses won’t fit here, not ifs, not maybe’s or nothing like that. Work was done in the better way it was decided to be done, and in a team everybody signs the results, both when winning or losing. Always, anything in life can be better, and certainly some things can be improved. Analysis regarding that will stay as an internal issue, and this happens both in winning and losing, but it’s due to every professional to use defeat as a learning tool to learn valuable lessons and keep evolving. It won’t be any different with Shogun, with team UDL, and of course, with myself.

Even thought he lost the fight and his belt, Shogun Rua showed courage, heart and tried his best in the octagon. He has all our respect for that, and will always have, making us proud for all that he already did in the past, keep doing and will certainly do in the future. I’m absolutely certain he will make a comeback to the top, cause he has more than enough talent, intelligence and youth to do it. Hard work and dedication on his part, and on all of us, won’t be lacking at all.

All the credit in the world and all merits goes to Jon Jones and his team. If before the fight he was a prospect, now he is more than a reality, he is the champion. He was better that night, performed leaving no doubts and deserved the win. There are no excuses! Now what’s left is to work hard and start again the way towards the top. To those who found ways to criticize some statements from our team to the press, Jon Jones himself spoke to me in the hotel on the night after the fight, and expresses his admiration for Shogun and apologized for any hype created before the fight that could have offended us, as it was simply part of his thing pre-fight. Once again, hats off to his team, they worked very hard and conquered their result deservingly so.

Let’s go to work, Shogun has done it before, he can and will do it again.

All the best, and thanks to all,

Eduardo Alonso.