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.)
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.)
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.
Instead of doing his entire training camp at the Grudge Training Center in Denver, like usual, Schaub traveled from Florida to New Mexico to prepare for Nogueira. He worked with Rashad Evans and the boys at Imperal Athletics in Boca Raton, then went to Albuquerque to see Greg Jackson and Mike Winkeljohn.
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.
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.
Instead of doing his entire training camp at the Grudge Training Center in Denver, like usual, Schaub traveled from Florida to New Mexico to prepare for Nogueira. He worked with Rashad Evans and the boys at Imperal Athletics in Boca Raton, then went to Albuquerque to see Greg Jackson and Mike Winkeljohn.
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…
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.
UFC 134 Betting Odds are back with our host, Steve Cofield from Cagewriter.com and ESPN along with our MMA expert analysts, Damon Martin of MMAWeekly.com and Larry Pepe of ProMMARadio.com. Check out who’s betting who.
UFC 134 Betting Odds are back with our host, Steve Cofield from Cagewriter.com and ESPN along with our MMA expert analysts, Damon Martin of MMAWeekly.com and Larry Pepe of ProMMARadio.com. Check out who’s betting who on the lines of the top three fights on the main card then check our Odds Side Bar to the top right of our page for a breakdown of the lines from the major online sports books and place your bets!
RIO DE JANEIRO — MMA Fighting spoke heavyweight Brendan Schaub at Wednesday’s UFC 134 media workouts about his upcoming fight against Antonio “Rodrigo” Nogueira, the fact that he is facing his third straight veteran, fighting in Brazil for the first time, his place in the heavyweight division, changing trainers and more.
RIO DE JANEIRO — MMA Fighting spoke heavyweight Brendan Schaub at Wednesday’s UFC 134 media workouts about his upcoming fight against Antonio “Rodrigo” Nogueira, the fact that he is facing his third straight veteran, fighting in Brazil for the first time, his place in the heavyweight division, changing trainers and more.
RIO DE JANEIRO — With his second straight fight against an MMA legend now just a day away, 
RIO DE JANEIRO — After eighteen months away from the cage and three surgeries, it’s hard not to wonder what kind of shape 
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