Victory for Nogueira always seemed to be a breath away. | Photo: M. Alonso/Sherdog.com
Todd Martin: For years, when friends asked me to explain my passion for MMA, the very first fight I would show them was Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira against Mirko Filipovic. This was before MMA was widely available on American TV, so the sport was still shrouded in mystery and this was the first MMA fight some of them ever saw. Nogueira-“Cro Cop” epitomized to me what is so magical about the sport, the combination of violence and strategy that can produce dramatic, sudden and total turnarounds that just don’t happen with anywhere near the same regularity in any other sport.
However, as John Marshall once noted, we must never forget that it is MMA we are watching. One fighter can be vastly superior to another in a given discipline or disciplines, but a fight can still turn on a dime if his opponent can turn it into a different type of fight. Even when a fighter has a strong edge in a given area, one mistake can lead to a kickboxer getting knocked out or a jiu-jitsu black belt getting submitted; and in that second round, Nogueira finally got a takedown. Moments later, he had an armbar locked in and “Cro Cop” was forced to tap out. I defy anyone who enjoys sport to watch a jubilant Nogueira being paraded around the ring to the roar of the normally reserved Japanese crowd after that victory and not fall in love with MMA.
The fight with Bob Sapp gets brought up more often when people are reminiscing about Nogueira’s career, but give me the “Cro Cop” fight over that one every day of the week. Against Sapp, Nogueira conquered a man of enormous size and strength but limited skill and cardio. It was an impressive feat, to be sure. However, MMA at its best is about finding a way to outmaneuver an equally skilled and prepared opponent. “Cro Cop” did everything right in preparing for that fight and did everything right for 95 percent of the fight itself. He just made one mistake, and his opponent negated all of that in an instant. That’s MMA in a nutshell.
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Jesse Denis: How do you summarize greatness like this? Moreover, how can you do so objectively when discussing someone for whom you have such a deep-seated, genuine admiration? On “Beatdown After the Bell” post-UFC 190, I said, “When I allowed myself to have a favorite fighter, Nogueira was my guy.” I actually spoke in the wrong tense; Nogueira is still very much “my guy.”
“Minotauro” was a cornerstone of Pride. His come-from-behind victory over Bob Sapp stands as the legendary display of mettle that made Nogueira such a beloved figure in the sport, but it was his battle with Mirko Filipovic that won my affection. At the end of the first round, when “Cro Cop” connected with his signature left high kick, you realized “left leg, cemetery” didn’t apply to Nogueira. After taking a 10-minute beating, the Brazilian-jiu-jitsu specialist rallied, as a belly-down armbar forced Filipovic to yield and put his palm to the canvas. It’s a great symbolic moment, this man on the receiving end of a combat sports death sentence and overcoming it in trademark style.
That spirit defined the defiant Brazilian, who was hit by a truck at the age of 10, costing him part of his liver and rib cage. Nogueira defied the odds his whole life, so such an origin story is perfect for him. Nogueira did not simply beat men; he conquered adversity in a way few dare to.
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Jack Encarnacao: I feel like Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira might never have achieved the eminence he has in the eyes of Zuffa had it not been for what he did at UFC 81 in February 2008.
It was a time of great tumult in the heavyweight division. The fall prior, Randy Couture abruptly left the UFC as its champion. Pride had folded, and its heavyweights were migrating stateside. The short-lived Affliction promotion was getting off the ground, signing up big-ticket heavies like Andrei Arlovski, Fedor Emelianenko, Ben Rothwell, Pedro Rizzo and Josh Barnett to immense contracts. Five months out from its premiere event, Affliction also had its eye on -- and check book open for -- Tim Sylvia, who was booked to face Nogueira at UFC 81 for an interim title. The belt was designed to fill the void left by Couture's departure. Sylvia would become a free agent after the fight.
Nogueira had made an underwhelming UFC debut the prior summer, in which he was floored early by a Heath Herring head kick but recovered to edge out the decision. Nogueira was long a symbol of what most fans considered the superiority of Pride’s heavyweight class, a sentiment that very much rankled Zuffa as it worked to elevate the UFC.
Now here he was, all that stood between the UFC and an over-the-barrel negotiation with yet another heavyweight champion who had an eye on greener pastures. Sylvia blasted Nogueira with a right in the first round and gamely avoided grappling. Then, in the third, Nogueira pulled guard and snatched Sylvia in a guillotine as he tried to scramble to his feet from underneath the Brazilian’s side mount. Nogueira got the tap and from that point on would be cited by UFC President Dana White as the fight awaiting Couture. That allowed the UFC to stake a contractual claim on Couture’s next fight if he reneged on his announced retirement.
Sylvia went on to collect $800,000 for a destructive one-and-done loss to Emelianenko that July in Affliction, which folded the next year. Couture returned to the UFC in November and lost to Brock Lesnar. The next August, Couture and Nogueira finally met in a spirited three-rounder won by Nogueira and celebrated by fans. All was forgiven on that night, but one wonders how different things would have been had Nogueira not caught Sylvia’s neck at UFC 81.
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Eric Stinton: Nogueira is probably the closest the sport will ever get to a comic book superhero. Perhaps skirting the whims of death in a horrendous car wreck as a child -- an accident that could have easily killed a grown man -- allowed him to return to the world of the living in possession of immortality. It’s as if he banked so many hours of unconsciousness when he was in a coma that he became impervious to it for the next 20 years. Whatever it was, the man’s ability to take a beating and still win is the stuff of legend.
I love the Tim Sylvia fight; nothing is more of a synecdoche for his career. Almost eight years ago, Nogueira looked battle-worn beyond his age, to the point where there were legitimate voices of doubt echoing against him even then. A man can only take so much punishment before his chin’s integrity turns brittle. Plus, Sylvia was a big puncher, just barely removed from a sturdy title reign.
Of course, Sylvia got Nogueira’d. After a couple rounds of eating crabknuckle, Nogueira pulled guard, swept Sylvia and caught his neck in a scramble. The fight lasted 11 minutes and 28 seconds, with “Minotauro” losing at least 11 of those minutes. However, he won the fight and with it, the interim UFC belt. It was the trick everyone expected him to do, and he did it. It was the last time he would realize his evolved form, and good lord, was it perfect.
Continue Reading » Nothing could kill Nogueira; not the truck that ran over the 10-year-old “Minotauro” and sent him into a four-day coma, costing him a rib and part of his liver; not the countless surgeries that undoubtedly made him age in dog years; not a 400-pound Sapp attempting to piledrive and power bomb him through the Pride Fighting Championships ring; not even Mir snapping his arm damn near in half. “Big Nog” always kept coming.