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The last time Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira won two fights in a row was in 2008, when the Pride star became the interim UFC heavyweight champion against Tim Sylvia. The Brazilian veteran wants to restart his career in 2014, and he has a target.

Following a submission loss to Fabricio Werdum at TUF: Brazil 2 Finale, “Minotauro” believes TUF winner Roy Nelson could be his next opponent. Nelson, who last fought in October, is coming off back-to-back decision losses to Daniel Cormier and Stipe Miocic, stopping his 3-fight win streak.

“I’m totally interested in this fight,” Nogueira told MMAFighting.com. “He’s a tough athlete and is always fighting the tops. I would like to fight him. He has a heavy hand and would be a good challenge.”

“Minotauro” is still recovering from the injury sustained in his last fight with Werdum in Fortaleza, Brazil, and expects to start his camp in January.

“I’m not training hard yet, but I’m always training something with my coaches,” he said. “But I won’t be able to train hard before January. I want to be back to the cage by March or April.”

While he can’t fully return to trainings, “Minotauro” and his twin brother, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, focus on spreading their gym throughout Brazil.

“I’ll be recovered from my injury by the end of the year,” he said. “Ligament injuries require six months to recover, so I can’t come back before that. So before I’m able to return to training, I’m focused in my gym.

“We’re developing a whole new methodology. I’m going to all the gyms now to teach our methodology with my brother and our trainers Luiz Carlos Dorea, Bruno Frazatto, Everaldo Penco, Rafael Cavalcante, Eduardo Pachu and Vander Valverde.”

Team Nogueira became a successful business in Brazil, and “Minotauro” expects to make more money with his brand next year.

“We have 16 gyms today, and we’ll end 2014 with 51 gyms around Brazil,” he said. “We also have Team Nogueira in Dubai, Zurich and San Diego. We have 7,000 students today, and 35 percent of them are women. We expect to have around 25 thousand students by the end of 2014.

“It’s a huge success. We created a big martial arts school that will help the future of the sport in Brazil.”

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil — Vitor Belfort needed three consecutive head kick knockouts to earn another shot at the UFC middleweight title, and he still has some new tricks to show.

UFC president Dana White announced that Belfort will likely return to the cage against the winner of Chris Weidman vs. Anderson Silva, and “The Phenom” won’t root for anyone at UFC 168, on Dec. 28.

“I’m just waiting for the winner,” Belfort said. “I don’t create expectations because I can get frustrated in the end. I’ve earned my shot at the title and I will fight whoever wins this fight. I just want to get in there and hear them say ‘the new middleweight champion’. I have a goal. I will defeat the champion and get the title.”

Belfort fought for the 185-pound title on February 2011, but was stopped by Silva with a front kick in the first round. A former teammate of “The Spider”, Belfort has some advices for Weidman.

“Weidman can’t let Anderson play his game,” he said. “Anderson is the type of fighter that will make you play his game, and Weidman needs to fight his fight. I will be watching this fight, and I don’t care who I’m fighting next.

“I’ll be even better when I return to the Octagon. I know it’s hard to believe that I can get even better than this, but I will. I’ve been training hard, and there are a lot of things that I haven’t done yet. My best is yet to come.”

Belfort won’t let the fact that he lost to Silva change his mindset going into a new fight, in case Silva beats Weidman at UFC 168.

“It’s important that you accept the facts,” he said. “He surprised me with a kick, and a true champion needs to accept what happened. We can’t control the results, but I can control what I will do about it. The last fight doesn’t mean that the next fight will end the same way.”

Weidman could bring a new challenge to the table against Belfort, who hasn’t been taken down in any of his last wins. The Blackzilian fighter isn’t worried about the possibility of fighting Weidman on the ground, though.

“My ground game is getting better and better since I started training with Gilbert Burns,” Belfort said. “And I don’t even need to talk about my wrestling since I’m working with the Michael Jordan of Wrestling, Kenny Monday. I’ve been working a lot in both areas.”

Undefeated when fighting in Brazil, with recent wins over Michael Bisping, Luke Rockhold and Dan Henderson, Belfort is confident that he will fight for the gold in front of his countrymen.

“This fight will be in a soccer stadium,” he said. “Whoever wins, I’m sure we can sell out Maracana or any other soccer stadium in Brazil. It would be really interesting.

“I know the UFC will come up with the best idea. They are really focused in Brazil right now. Globo is offering great fights for the Brazilians. I just want to enjoy my training. I will train focused on both, and focused on working my abilities.”

It wasn’t vintage Manny Pacquiao at the Cotai Arena in The Venetian in Macao, China on Saturday night, but it was a very dominant Pacquiao as the Filipino superstar smashed American Brandon Rios. Pacquiao earned 120-108, 119-109 and 118-110 in the judges scorecards, making him the new WBO international welterweight champion.

MMA Fighting scored the bout 119-110 for Pacquiao.

The bout wasn’t much of a surprise as Pacquiao used his superior skills to defeat the more limited Rios. Pacquiao relied on angles, distance, combinations and head speed. According to Yahoo Sports, Pacquiao landed 223 of 468 punches to Rios’ 113 of 263 punches.

Rios relentlessly tried to put Pacquiao’s back on the ropes or in the corner, but was almost entirely unsuccessful. Pacquiao was able to defend himself long enough to cut angles and bring the fight back to the center of the ring. Rios was never knocked down, but was tagged with huge, damaging punches over and over.

Nothing is confirmed or even proposed, but Pacquiao told commentator Larry Merchant he wanted to return to Las Vegas, Nevada to fight. A rematch with Timothy Bradley, who he lost to in very controversial fashion in the state in 2012, is a possibility moving forward.

Watch Manny Pacquiao vs. Brandon Rios full fight video highlights from Pacquiao vs. Rios main event above, courtesy of ESPN.

Pacquiao vs. Rios took place November 23, 2013 at the Venetian Macao in Macao, China. Manny Pacquiao improved to 55-5-2 in his career with the win, ending his two-fight skid. Brandon Rios dropped to 31-2-1 with the loss. Catch the video highlights above.

For more on Pacquiao’s victory, check out the play-by-play by Luke Thomas below.

Round 1: Pacquiao opens southpaw, Rios is orthodox. Body shot for Pacquiao as he slowly opens up. Pacquiao already placing shots, though none of them…