Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira Hopes for UFC Return in Spring 2011
Posted by Kris Karkoski on Sep 28, 2010 at 11:04 am ET19 Comments
Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira is recovering from recent surgeries on his knee and hip that forced him out of UFC 119′s main event against Frank Mir and hopes to return to UFC action in the spring, the former heavyweight champ told MMAFighting.
Nogueira (32-6-1) suffered a first-round knockout to upcoming heavyweight challenger Cain Velasquez in February after topping Randy Couture last August for his fourth win in five fights.
No date or opponent has been set for Minotauro’s return.
For the latest UFC news and UFC rumors stay tuned to MMAFrenzy.com.
Loading ...
You got the name wrong.
It’s Minotauro Nogueira that was knocked off the card.
Uh…..”No date or opponent has been set for Minotauro’s return.” Isn’t that what he said?
Minotoro fought and lost to Bader on the same card…
Sorry that you felt the need to post incorrectly! :)
Actually they got it right. Your thinking of Rogerio Nogueira (lil nog). This is right.
give him mike russow!!
Minotauro Nogueira is Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira (he is the heavyweight fighter). Antônio Rogério Nogueira is Little Nog the light heavyweight fighter. Only difference in them is a little bit of weight and a scar, easily confused.
And Little Nog is Minotoro.
No, Antonio Rodrigo “Minotauro” Nogueira is the HW and Antonio Rogerio “Little Nog” Nogueira is the LHW. Check UFC’s official roster for yourself.
Ignore my post. I thought you put Minotauro. Didn’t realize you put Minotoro
LOL.
I’m surprised we haven’t been faced with the case of the mistaken Nogueira before now…
;)
I know that Joe Silva doesn’t usually like to match guys coming off of losses with guys coming off of wins all that much, but after Frank Mir’s sucktacular 119 performance, I see no reason why a rematch can’t be signed at this time.
BigNog is still trying to find his place in the UFC HW crowd, and Mir still isn’t ready by what I saw at 119 for rematching Lesnar or Carwin.
Plus Mir should get the message that sh!t like 119 just doesn’t fly, so IMO this makes a lot of sense…
In complete agreement with your sentiments jcohl. I definitely don’t want to see Mir take a big step up just because he threw one good strike in three rounds of fighting. Let his match with Cro Cop get him the same kind of nod from the front office that a boring UD or even a loss would’ve earned him. As far as I’m concerned Mir was the only winner in the main event that night, and at the expense of both his employers and us fans.
Plus we have the situation that when BigNog and Mir fought, BigNog was recovering from a pretty serious medical condition, and was well below fighting shape, for him.
For years a lot of MMA fans, including the fighters themselves, wondered who was the better Bjj-heavy HW, and I for one would dig seeing Mir face a BigNog closer to peak condition than he was last time then went at it…
I think Mir vs Nog is a good matchup as well even though his fight before with Big Nog was convincing enough, but CroCop definitely wasn’t. And a fight with Big Nog again will decide if Mir should stay in Hw and work his way back up, or stay on that vegetarian diet and get down to 205.
Just as an FYI, I’m reasonably sure that Mir/205 project is more fictiom than fact at this point.
In a recent Dana White interview he was asked about Mir at 205, and said that Mir couldn’t make 205 in a practice cut. On Mir’s part he hasn’t commented on fighting in 205 for some time now, and thats uncharacteristic for him.
Longtime MMA fans know that is Mir is anything, its communicative, many times fatally so ;)
Finally, and I realize that this is more anecdotal than actual “proof”, but a good friend of mine [and uber-lucky SOB] who works as a station chef at the Bellagio’s Prime Steakhouse [a Jean-Georges Vongerichten restaurant] said that Mir and a small party were in about 2 months ago and enjoyed quite the meat-tastic feast, including but not limited to a chef’s special double cut veal chop sided by foie gros and butter poached lobster, along with several Vienna-style desserts.
My point here is that doesn’t sound much to me like a fighter who walks around at maybe 250 trying to get down to 205 anytime soon, does it?
;)
=D
not much left in him. in my opinion he’ll never be a champ again but i could be wrong.
Well honestly no UFC HW has a shot at either “being champ” or “being champ again” unless Brock Lesnar dramatically goes off the rails in terms of wanting to fight, or GSP forbid seriously injures himself or otherwise gets hurt.
Every other creditable MMA HW on the planet is currently too small, too old, too young and/or inexperienced, lacking in wrestling ability, or not possessing the Lesnarian mindset of achieving sheer joy from beating the living sh!t out of another man in the cage.
That being the case, BigNog can’t reasonably be singled out and written off for not being able to do something that no other MMA HW fighter on the planet has been able to do to date, if you follow…
I think Mir would get him… Again, I would like to see Big Nog against Roy Nelson, Or Cro Cop since he just loss… Mir loked ****ty but with alot of practice i think in about a year he might be ready to get whipped by Lesnar/Carwin… Again and im a Mir fan but these monsters are… Monsters. Hey off subject but you guys member when the HW divison was nothing? just like a year or 2 ago
of course im not writing him off im just saying the odds are stacked high against him. i doubt he’ll get past mir carwin and we know what happened against cain