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Light heavyweight veteran Antonio Rogerio Nogueira could call it quits after his UFC 250 fight with longtime rival Mauricio Rua.
May 2020 could be the last time fans will get to watch a Nogueira brother perform in the Octagon.
With his twin brother Antonio Rodrigo ‘Minotauro’ Nogueira having hung up his gloves back in 2015, it sounds like his light heavyweight sibling might be ready to follow suit. Antonio Rogerio ‘Lil’ Nog’ Nogueira is set to take on longtime rival Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua in a trilogy fight at UFC 250. Their first two encounters, in 2005 and again in 2015, ended as unanimous decision wins for Rua.
In an interview with MMA Fighting, Nogueira stated that this could very well be the last fight of his 19-year, 32-fight MMA career. And while he sounds ready to move on from MMA, he’s thankful that Shogun agreed to give him an opportunity to have one last banger.
“This fight will probably be the last fight of my career, my farewell fight,” Nogueira said, “So being able to have this rematch with ‘Shogun’ is both challenging and motivating. I thank ‘Shogun’ for giving me this opportunity. I’m sure we’ll put on a great fight again.”
Even though Nogueira did lose both of their previous encounters, he – and several other media members at the time – believes he did enough to have earned the victory in their 2015 battle at UFC 190. In order to put a more definitive stamp on their rivalry, Lil Nog asked UFC president for one more fight against Rua.
“I was looking for a fight that made sense for me,” he said, “and this fight with ‘Shogun’ makes lot of sense for me because we started it in 2005 with one of the most memorable fights in MMA history, one of the best in PRIDE history. That fight in 2005 was very, very close. I believe I had the advantage, but they gave it to him. But the fight we did in 2015, I’m fully aware that I won the first two rounds. He took me down in the third round, but that fight was mine.”
“I contested that decision a lot and Dana White even promised me a rematch. Five years later, I have the opportunity to fight him again. It’s the fight that makes sense for me to come back.”
In his last bout, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (23-9) was knocked out by Ryan Spann, back in May 2019. Before that, the 43-year-old scored a TKO victory against Sam Alvey, back in September at UFC Fight Night: Santos vs. Anders.
UFC 250 is set to go down in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on May 9. Although the fight is yet to be officially announced, a bantamweight title bout between champion Henry Cejudo and former featherweight title holder Jose Aldo is targeted to headline the card.