Tag: Fight Night 39

Dear God, No: Big Nog Eyeing Another Fight After He Returns From ACL Surgery


(Ugh, post-knockout leg lifts are just the *worst*. Photo via Getty.)

There wasn’t an MMA fan among us who enjoyed watching Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira get pancaked by Roy Nelson at Fight Night 39. The ugly loss accounted for Minotauro’s second in as many contests and 5th in his past 8 overall. Even more unsettling is the fact that in those 5 defeats, the formerly unfinishable heavyweight has suffered two broken arms and at least three concussions, not to mention the litany of injuries he’s gone down with in between those fights.

In short, it would appear that Big Nog’s body is trying to tell him something. Unfortunately for his arms, legs, torso, and jaw, his mind has apparently yet to receive the message. It was revealed over the weekend by Nogueira himself that the former PRIDE champion had tore his ACL just days prior to his contest with Nelson, which might have explained why he looked as if he was fighting underwater in the minutes leading up to his brutal loss:

I just got my exams, and I unfortunately tore my ACL. Three days before the fight, I was training wrestling and I twisted my right knee working on a single leg. I stopped training, and I felt it during the fight. I did the exams as soon as I returned to Brazil, and I found out this morning that I hurt the ACL and LCL.

I’m going to need surgery. I had the same surgery on the left knee three years ago, and now it’s on the right knee.

So basically, Nogueira’s body is a ticking time bomb. But rest assured, he still wants another fight…


(Ugh, post-knockout leg lifts are just the *worst*. Photo via Getty.)

There wasn’t an MMA fan among us who enjoyed watching Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira get pancaked by Roy Nelson at Fight Night 39. The ugly loss accounted for Minotauro’s second in as many contests and 5th in his past 8 overall. Even more unsettling is the fact that in those 5 defeats, the formerly unfinishable heavyweight has suffered two broken arms and at least three concussions, not to mention the litany of injuries he’s gone down with in between those fights.

In short, it would appear that Big Nog’s body is trying to tell him something. Unfortunately for his arms, legs, torso, and jaw, his mind has apparently yet to receive the message. It was revealed over the weekend by Nogueira himself that the former PRIDE champion had tore his ACL just days prior to his contest with Nelson, which might have explained why he looked as if he was fighting underwater in the minutes leading up to his brutal loss:

I just got my exams, and I unfortunately tore my ACL. Three days before the fight, I was training wrestling and I twisted my right knee working on a single leg. I stopped training, and I felt it during the fight. I did the exams as soon as I returned to Brazil, and I found out this morning that I hurt the ACL and LCL.

I’m going to need surgery. I had the same surgery on the left knee three years ago, and now it’s on the right knee.

So basically, Nogueira’s body is a ticking time bomb. But rest assured, he still wants another fight…

I want to recover and see what happens, but I want to fight. I was feeling great, had a great training camp for this fight. I was fast, but I couldn’t perform. I have to recover and start it all over again.

Well, at least we know that Nogueira has yet to actually see a video of the fight, because if he thinks he was faster than anything but a T-1000 covered in liquid nitrogen, he is sorely mistaken.

But who would you like to see Big Nog face when he returns from his latest surgery, Nation? A willow tree? A slowly-shifting tectonic plate? Father Time?

–J. Jones