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Why “Little Nog” is Bigger News at Light-Heavyweight than the Headlines Have Indicated.
Written by Jack Barrington   
Wednesday, 02 December 2009 15:58
Back at UFC 106 we all saw how Antônio Rogério Nogueira disposed of Luis Cane inside of a round. We all saw how ill-equipped Cane was to deal with Rogério’s superior boxing, quick left hand, southpaw stance, and to the surprise of some, his power. We all saw this. We all watched two top ten light-heavyweight fighters face-off and we all watched one dominate the other. We all saw the man with potentially the best ground-game and sharpest boxing in MMA at 205lbs, decisively disposing of a legitimate LHW contender within two minutes. Now, this week we all heard that same man, Antônio Rogério Nogueira, express interest in a fight with former champion and fellow top ten fighter; Forrest Griffin. We all heard this, but for some frankly inexplicable reason, people just aren’t talking about him, people just aren’t talking about “Little Nog”.

Rogério’s sheer obliteration of Luis Cane was, for my money, the most impressive performance of UFC 106. Yes, he did seemingly throw the same combination over and over, but in all fairness, if he was landing that over-hand left time-after-time, then to stop throwing it for the sake of “mixing it up” would have surely been an injudicious decision from his viewpoint. Every time Cane threw a leg kick or dropped his lead-hand, he paid for it by repeatedly eating punches to the chin, until, while already on wobbly legs from the previous barrage, he went down hard and was saved mercifully by Steve Mazzagatti.

This was no easy warm-up or “welcome to the UFC” fight for Rogério, Cane was a top ten light-heavyweight, even if he didn’t look it during the two minutes it took for him to be stopped. And yet, from gauging the fans reactions on a number of MMA websites, it is almost as if Rogério simply did what was expected of him. All but one of our writers picked Nogueira to win the fight in the FightLockdown Forecast, but none of us could have envisioned Cane being so, well to be blunt, completely outclassed. Perhaps the lack of talk is simply due to the fact that Cane, while being a top 10 light-heavyweight, was still relatively unproven and essentially a prospect? More likely it seems, is that the fight was to all intents and purposes overshadowed by the main event rematch between former champions; Forrest Griffin and Tito Ortiz. With Griffin coming out victorious and Rogério expressing interesting in a potential matchup with the Xtreme Couture fighter, a match-up between the two would garner considerably more hype and publicity than Nogueira’s last octagon outing.

Not only would a match-up with Griffin surely push Rogério into the public eye, but a win would vault him directly into the title picture which, in all honesty, is where a fighter of his quality should be. I’m knowingly going to get slightly ahead of myself and take a look at this fight itself, no matter how many “ifs” or “buts” may lie between where we are now and them actually staring at each other from each side of the Octagon, it is still an interesting matchup and interesting matchups in the UFC’s marquee division should be discussed.


Even as a fairly strong proponent of Griffin, I find it hard to see where his edge is in this fight. Rogério has better hands, bigger power, a better ground game and a more active clinch, not to mention Forrest’s most favoured weapon of late, his roundhouse leg kicks, would have a hard time finding a home on a southpaw like Nogueira, and an even harder time doing a whole lot of damage. I will intentionally keep this brief as it is clearly speculation on a barely rumoured fight, but even if Forrest used his well-roundedness, conditioning and kicking game to make it a competitive affair, I fear Nogueira’s chin, power, boxing, and exceptional ground game give him considerably more chances to win the fight than Forrest has at his disposal. He has all of the tools, whether this fight gets made or not is another question entirely, but breaking down a fight with him involving almost any other top 205lb fighter, it becomes very clear that the slightly smaller Nogueira brother is in a very good position to be successful in the UFC.

How successful may very well depend on how the rematch between Rogério’s teammate Lyoto Machida, and his former adversary, Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, turns out. While neither side has made a definitive statement on whether or not they would fight each other, it is still rather apparent that a clash with Shogun would be significantly more likely than a showdown with Machida, and a Nogueira - Shogun rematch is, for literally every hardcore MMA fan alive, a truly tantalizing prospect. With their first encounter recently voted the greatest ever MMA fight by FightLockdown’s faithful forum members, a rematch would incite excitement of the highest proportion within the MMA community.

I am aware that I am noticeably looking too far down the road here, and a rocky road it may be given the nature of the UFC’s light-heavyweight division, however, my intention is pure; to remind MMA fans not only what a great fighter Rogério can be, but also what an exciting one he is as well. He has spent too long away from the big stage and throughout his career he has been almost exclusively followed by the more hardcore MMA community. However, now at 33 years old, his time has come to make himself known to the mainstream MMA community.

Whether or not the potential clash with Forrest Griffin will take place is speculation that we cannot know for certain (until it is announced, that is). What we do know though, is that we have one of the best 205lb fighters in the world right under our noses and mark my words, if you don’t sit up and take notice of Antônio Rogério Nogueira right now, his coming performances in the UFC will undoubtedly force you to in the very near future.

The forgotten Nogueira brother is back, and he’s ready to command the spotlight on MMA’s biggest stage.