On Saturday night, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira defeated Tito Ortiz via first-round TKO due to body shots on the ground.
It was an impressive win for Nogueira, but he is still incredibly overrated.
In the UFC, Nogueira is an underwhelming 3-2, which could easily be 2-3, had the judges seen his fight against Jason Brilz the other way—as many thought it should have been.
So, first, let’s just take a look at Nogueira’s three wins.
He beat Luiz Cane in his debut. It was definitely an impressive victory, but Cane is not even close to a top-10 light heavyweight, and he is dropping to middleweight, where he is also not a top-10 fighter.
Then he beat Brilz via highly controversial split decision. Many say the fight should have gone to Brilz. Unfortunately, Brilz is not a quality opponent, as after the decision loss to Nogueira, he was knocked out—twice—in a combined 1:37.
He has since been released from the UFC.
Then, Nogueira beat Ortiz. Ortiz has become a fan favorite as of late, but if you honestly just look at his recent performance, he is 1-6-1 in his last eight fights.
If that was nearly anyone else, they would have been out of a job a long time ago.
Ortiz will always have a place in the UFC, but his fights are just getting worse and worse for him.
Nogueira has defeated three mediocre fighters, and has lost to the only top-10 fighters he faced—Phil Davis and Ryan Bader—and he lost to both by unanimous decision.
Nogueira got an impressive win, but he also got way too much credit to begin with.
Tim McTiernan is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report. For the latest news on everything MMA, follow Tim on Twitter @tmt2393.
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