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RIO DE JANEIRO — MMA Fighting caught up with Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira after his knockout win over Brendan Schaub at UFC 134. “Big Nog” discussed the reception he received from his fans, why he took the fight despite being injured and how this victory stacks up in his legendary career.
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RIO DE JANEIRO — MMA Fighting caught up with Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira after his knockout win over Brendan Schaub at UFC 134. “Big Nog” discussed the reception he received from his fans, why he took the fight despite being injured and how this victory stacks up in his legendary career.
In what may have been the biggest international showcase for the UFC in its history, the promotion handed out some of its biggest bonuses, as well.
Fight night bonus awards in the amount of $100,000 each were given to Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Edson Barboza and Ross Pearson after the historic UFC 134 card in Rio de Janeiro. It was the UFC’s first trip to Brazil since 1998.
There was no submission in the 12 fights on the card at HSBC Arena in Rio, so UFC president Dana White said at Saturday’s post-fight press conference he got to save a little money. Previous six-figure bonuses have been awarded at UFC 129 in Toronto, where fighters got $129,000 bonuses after fights in front of a UFC record of more than 55,000 fans. And at UFC 100, bonus winners also got $100,000 each.
Nogueira had to beat out several other candidates for the KO award, including debuting Brazilian Erick Silva, who stopped fellow countryman Luis Ramos just 40 seconds into the first round. And on the main card, Stanislav Nedkov upset Luiz Cane with a first-round TKO and Shogun Rua beat Forrest Griffin with a first-round finish, as well.
In the main event, Nogueira’s Blackhouse teammate Anderson Silva defended his middleweight title for the ninth straight time with a TKO of Yushin Okami. And that, too, could have vied for the knockout bonus.
Barboza and Pearson each won $100,000 for Fight of the Night for a close bout that saw Barboza, from Brazil, win a split decision. Pearson seemed to win much of the standup battle, though Barboza scored a knockdown early in the second round. Barboza improved to 9-0 overall and 3-0 in the UFC. The Fight of the Night bonus was his second straight.
In what may have been the biggest international showcase for the UFC in its history, the promotion handed out some of its biggest bonuses, as well.
Fight night bonus awards in the amount of $100,000 each were given to Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Edson Barboza and Ross Pearson after the historic UFC 134 card in Rio de Janeiro. It was the UFC’s first trip to Brazil since 1998.
There was no submission in the 12 fights on the card at HSBC Arena in Rio, so UFC president Dana White said at Saturday’s post-fight press conference he got to save a little money. Previous six-figure bonuses have been awarded at UFC 129 in Toronto, where fighters got $129,000 bonuses after fights in front of a UFC record of more than 55,000 fans. And at UFC 100, bonus winners also got $100,000 each.
Nogueira had to beat out several other candidates for the KO award, including debuting Brazilian Erick Silva, who stopped fellow countryman Luis Ramos just 40 seconds into the first round. And on the main card, Stanislav Nedkov upset Luiz Cane with a first-round TKO and Shogun Rua beat Forrest Griffin with a first-round finish, as well.
In the main event, Nogueira’s Blackhouse teammate Anderson Silva defended his middleweight title for the ninth straight time with a TKO of Yushin Okami. And that, too, could have vied for the knockout bonus.
Barboza and Pearson each won $100,000 for Fight of the Night for a close bout that saw Barboza, from Brazil, win a split decision. Pearson seemed to win much of the standup battle, though Barboza scored a knockdown early in the second round. Barboza improved to 9-0 overall and 3-0 in the UFC. The Fight of the Night bonus was his second straight.
(Props: epwar. Click for larger version.)
Every time I see a photo of Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, it freaks me out that the dude is only five years older than me. I mean, yeah, I haven’t spent my life traveling overseas to be punched in the face by some of the baddest heavyweight MMA fighters in history, but I like to think that my skin care regiment is paying off. (Pumpkin seed oil and placenta, all day. Trust me, guys.)
The mere sight of Nogueira and Brendan Schaub standing next to each other is just one of the reasons why the legendary Brazilian is coming in as more than a 2-1 underdog for their main card bout at tomorrow night’s UFC 134: Silva vs. Okami card. Plus, he’s had surgeries on both knees and his hip since his knockout loss to Cain Velasquez last February, and admits that his rehab was rushed in order for him to compete in his home country for the first time.
Saturday night will determine if Big Nog still has a future as a top-level competitor. Can he pull it off?
(Props: epwar. Click for larger version.)
Every time I see a photo of Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, it freaks me out that the dude is only five years older than me. I mean, yeah, I haven’t spent my life traveling overseas to be punched in the face by some of the baddest heavyweight MMA fighters in history, but I like to think that my skin care regiment is paying off. (Pumpkin seed oil and placenta, all day. Trust me, guys.)
The mere sight of Nogueira and Brendan Schaub standing next to each other is just one of the reasons why the legendary Brazilian is coming in as more than a 2-1 underdog for their main card bout at tomorrow night’s UFC 134: Silva vs. Okami card. Plus, he’s had surgeries on both knees and his hip since his knockout loss to Cain Velasquez last February, and admits that his rehab was rushed in order for him to compete in his home country for the first time.
Saturday night will determine if Big Nog still has a future as a top-level competitor. Can he pull it off?
Filed under: UFC
All 22 fighters at UFC 134 will first step on the scale at the UFC 134 weigh-ins Friday afternoon, and we’ll have the live video right here at MMAFighting.com.
In the main event, UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva and challenger Yushin Okami will have to make the 185-pound middleweight limit. The weigh-ins may also give us an idea of what kind of shape heavyweight Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira is in, after a layoff of a year and a half.
The weigh-in begins at 3 PM ET and the video is below.
Filed under: UFC
All 22 fighters at UFC 134 will first step on the scale at the UFC 134 weigh-ins Friday afternoon, and we’ll have the live video right here at MMAFighting.com.
In the main event, UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva and challenger Yushin Okami will have to make the 185-pound middleweight limit. The weigh-ins may also give us an idea of what kind of shape heavyweight Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira is in, after a layoff of a year and a half.
The weigh-in begins at 3 PM ET and the video is below.
Filed under: UFC
RIO DE JANEIRO — With his second straight fight against an MMA legend now just a day away, Brendan Schaub is approaching a point of no return. Up until now, he’s been quietly moving up the ranks — an up-and-comer.
If he beats Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira at UFC 134, however, he knows the days of being just another heavyweight contender will likely be at an end. From there, as he put it, “There’s only a couple fights left for me, if I do my job on Saturday night.”
And yeah, he’s considered what those potential fights might look like.
“They could give me the winner of Cain [Velasquez]-[Junior] dos Santos and I don’t think many people would argue about it,” said Schaub. “Or you could give me a big name like [Brock] Lesnar.”
Then again, there’s still that conditional aspect of his statement — “if I do my job on Saturday night” — to consider. That’s why they have the fights, after all. It’s also why you get weeks to prepare for them.
The one man he didn’t see all that much of this time was trainer Trevor Wittman, who will be missing from Schaub’s corner for the first time in Schaub’s professional career.
“I’ve never had a corner make or break the fight, so it’s not a big deal,” he said. Which is not to say it made no difference to be without Wittman this time around.
Before his fight with Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic in March, Wittman had to ban Schaub from the gym temporarily, strictly for his own good. Schaub’s always been a gym rat, and even he admitted that he’d worked himself to the point that it was counter-productive.
So how did he handle the impluse to overtrain this time around?
“Worst I’ve ever done,” he grinned. “I had no one to give me an intervention. The last week or so I’ve had time to rest though, so I feel good.”
What many onlookers are wondering is how Nogueira feels heading into this fight. At 35 years old and with three surgeries separating him from his last fight eighteen months ago, Nogueira’s physical condition is still a question mark. Schaub seems to choosing to believe that his opponent will be in prime shape, since the fight has high stakes for both men.
“There’s pressure on both of us. There’s pressure on him fighting in front of his home crowd, and there’s pressure on me. There’s title implications in this fight, so it’s a big deal for both of us.”
Of course, if Schaub wins and the UFC offers him Lesnar rather than a title shot, Schaub would take it in a heart beat, he said.
“Oh yeah. All day. If that’s what they want to do, give me Lesnar after this fight, I’m cool with it.”
In order to even have that conversation, first he has to get past Nogueira. The Brazilian might bring a battered body into the cage, but he also brings the experience that Schaub still lacks.
And don’t tell Big Nog that experience doesn’t matter in the fight game. He’s earned his. As you can tell just by looking at the man, he also paid for it in full.
Filed under: UFC
RIO DE JANEIRO — With his second straight fight against an MMA legend now just a day away, Brendan Schaub is approaching a point of no return. Up until now, he’s been quietly moving up the ranks — an up-and-comer.
If he beats Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira at UFC 134, however, he knows the days of being just another heavyweight contender will likely be at an end. From there, as he put it, “There’s only a couple fights left for me, if I do my job on Saturday night.”
And yeah, he’s considered what those potential fights might look like.
“They could give me the winner of Cain [Velasquez]-[Junior] dos Santos and I don’t think many people would argue about it,” said Schaub. “Or you could give me a big name like [Brock] Lesnar.”
Then again, there’s still that conditional aspect of his statement — “if I do my job on Saturday night” — to consider. That’s why they have the fights, after all. It’s also why you get weeks to prepare for them.
The one man he didn’t see all that much of this time was trainer Trevor Wittman, who will be missing from Schaub’s corner for the first time in Schaub’s professional career.
“I’ve never had a corner make or break the fight, so it’s not a big deal,” he said. Which is not to say it made no difference to be without Wittman this time around.
Before his fight with Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic in March, Wittman had to ban Schaub from the gym temporarily, strictly for his own good. Schaub’s always been a gym rat, and even he admitted that he’d worked himself to the point that it was counter-productive.
So how did he handle the impluse to overtrain this time around?
“Worst I’ve ever done,” he grinned. “I had no one to give me an intervention. The last week or so I’ve had time to rest though, so I feel good.”
What many onlookers are wondering is how Nogueira feels heading into this fight. At 35 years old and with three surgeries separating him from his last fight eighteen months ago, Nogueira’s physical condition is still a question mark. Schaub seems to choosing to believe that his opponent will be in prime shape, since the fight has high stakes for both men.
“There’s pressure on both of us. There’s pressure on him fighting in front of his home crowd, and there’s pressure on me. There’s title implications in this fight, so it’s a big deal for both of us.”
Of course, if Schaub wins and the UFC offers him Lesnar rather than a title shot, Schaub would take it in a heart beat, he said.
“Oh yeah. All day. If that’s what they want to do, give me Lesnar after this fight, I’m cool with it.”
In order to even have that conversation, first he has to get past Nogueira. The Brazilian might bring a battered body into the cage, but he also brings the experience that Schaub still lacks.
And don’t tell Big Nog that experience doesn’t matter in the fight game. He’s earned his. As you can tell just by looking at the man, he also paid for it in full.
Filed under: UFCRIO DE JANEIRO — After eighteen months away from the cage and three surgeries, it’s hard not to wonder what kind of shape Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira will be in for UFC 134.
From his hip to his knees, the 35-year-old Brazilian has under…
Filed under: UFC
RIO DE JANEIRO — After eighteen months away from the cage and three surgeries, it’s hard not to wonder what kind of shape Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira will be in for UFC 134.
From his hip to his knees, the 35-year-old Brazilian has undergone a complete physical overhaul since his knockout loss to Cain Velasquez, and questions about whether it’s left him in better or worse condition for Saturday night’s fight with Brendan Schaub seem to follow him wherever he goes.
“I don’t think he would take a fight with a guy like me if he wasn’t a hundred percent,” Schaub said on Thursday. “Especially in front of his home crowd.”
One hundred percent might be stretching it a little bit, but Nogueira insists he’s better off now than he has been for years.
“The last three years before I had the surgery, we couldn’t find out exactly what the problem was,” he said. Now, after three surgeries, he feels like he’s got a whole new body to work with. “I’m walking better, everything. When I would bend down before, there was a lot of pain.”
Still, the recovery from all those procedures didn’t come easy. It was ten months of physical therapy, sometimes for up to six hours a day.
“It was a big rehab,” Nogueira said. “It was really hard, but I think the rehab also made me in good condition for my core, my back strength. …It helped me train, I think. I feel good for this fight.”
At the same time, Nogueira wanted to fight on the UFC’s Rio card so badly that you might wonder whether he rushed his recovery, and you wouldn’t be the only one, he admitted.
“I asked the guys, like Anderson Silva, Rafael ‘Feijao’ [Cavalcante], my sparring partners. I said, guys, I want to fight in Brazil. They said I should take some more time, but I said, one month. Let’s train for one month, and then you’re going to say I can do it. After one month I was training hard, my wrestling got better, my jiu-jitsu got better. I pulled the guys together and they told me, yeah, you’re ready.”
Against Schaub, Nogueira’s wrestling ability could be the difference between victory and defeat, which is why he brought in former U.S. Olympic coach Eric Albarracin to help him train for this fight.
Albarracin said he could see Nogueira’s past wrestling training there under the rubble of his current game in the gym, and it was only a matter of sharpening it up and bringing it out.
“As I started working with him, it came back,” Albarracin said. “I could see it. I thought, I don’t have to teach him too much. He knows how to wrestle.”
So does that mean Albarracin thinks Nogueira could put Schaub on his back with a double-leg? At that, the wrestling coach grinned.
“That’s the plan,” he said. “He can do it if he needs to.”
The ability to take the fight to the floor could prove to be vital against the bigger, faster Schaub, who’ll come into the fight with a reach advantage and a heavy right hand, and will most likely look to put both to work.
“If I put him down, I’ve got a chance to use my jiu-jitsu,” said Nogueira. “I have more experience than him. For sure, he’s physical and he’s younger than me, but I’ve got good endurance.”
In the past, it’s been Nogueira’s ability to keep rising from the grave that’s proved to be one of his greatest assets. On Saturday night, we’ll get to find out whether he still has one more resurrection left in him.