RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil — Rogério “Minotouro” Nogueira was one the greatest standouts of first round of the last month’s PRIDE Middleweight Grand Prix after submitting none other than the excellent Dan Henderson. In his first interview since that victory, Nogueira talked about the fight, his training with his brother Rodrigo, and what he expects for the other rounds of the event.
Rogério Nogueira: It was a good fight; I had the opportunity of get a good submission. The fight went as I expected. My brother gave me the tips of the way [Henderson] fights on the ground. He said he is tough, but the jiu-jitsu that we were training was superior to his technique on the ground. So I tried to explore this area of the game. On the stand position I stayed circling very relaxed, I released some straight and cross punches to daze him and try to put him on the ground and go for the submission.
Sherdog.com: Did you expect to submit him in the first round?
Nogueira: No, I didn’t expect the submission so quickly. I was thinking submission him when he became very tired — in the second, third round maybe. But the opportunity of staying on the top position arrived earlier and I couldn’t lose it. At the time I stayed on top position I was going for the finish anyway.
Sherdog.com: There was a moment in the fight that Henderson showed fatigue. Do you think it was because of the rhythm you put in the fight?
Nogueira: I think it was the rhythm that he put himself into. He started trying to knock me out, but I didn’t back up. I went straight at him all the time and he ended up tiring himself because he gave and received a grip too, so he tired himself first than me.
Sherdog.com: Training with your brother ended up being very important for you, isn’t it?
Nogueira: Yes it was. Before the fight he turned to me and told me to do a lot of omo platas, a lot of submissions from the side control — try to finish the fight right away. He was sure it was going to happen. We stayed training a lot of this in Japan: omo plata, triangle choke, armbar, submission from the side control. I was expecting one of these opportunities to submit him.
Sherdog.com: What did you think about Arona’s fight?
Nogueira: The fight was good. Some people said the fight was stalled, but for me there were a lot of jiu-jitsu technique, a lot of techniques on the ground. Dean Lister is a tough guy; he is very smart and slick. It was a tough fight.
Sherdog.com: Vitor’s loss surprised you?
Nogueira: It was a surprise for everyone. I became sad. I trained with him a little before the fight. Nobody expected his defeat. I knew that Overeem was very dangerous, but I thought that Vítor was going to smash him in the fight, because he is better standing and on the ground. But Overeem made a surprise. Now Vítor has to look ahead.
Sherdog.com: And what do you think about the fighters that remain?
Nogueira: I think all the fighters are tough. A lot of them are good standing. The ones that knows how to strike, knows how to play jiu-jitsu stayed. All the wrestlers went out, such as Randleman, Henderson and Jackson. The only wrestling guy that stayed was Sakuraba. The standing level is high now, so we are going to have a lot of exciting fights the way PRIDE likes, with a lot of exchanges in the stand position and a lot of groundwork. We are not going to have those ground-and-pound. Any way they put the brackets there will be good fights.
Sherdog.com: The Americans lost all their fights …
Nogueira: I think they are very mad with us (laughs). They said a lot of shit, when Rodrigo and Wanderlei lost and now is our time. Brazil is back and we proved that we are the best. I think it’s only proved that Brazil dominates the MMA world. Four of the eight better fighters in the world are Brazilians. There is nothing wrong; it only proves that the Brazilians are better. The guys joked when Vítor lost to Couture, now they are f__ked (laughs).
Sherdog.com: How is your brother’s preparation for 2005?
Nogueira: He is training, didn’t close any deal to fight, but is training. Probably he’s going to fight in the middle of the year. There is nothing right now, but he’s training and is going to kick some asses.
Sherdog.com: You and “Minotauro” admit a deficiency in the wrestling part of your games, but you are already training more this style of fighting, right?
Nogueira: Yes we are. Now we are training with Darrel Gholar, we still train with Jéferson Jopp, but under the supervision of Darrel. He is a guy that has experience in MMA and has a lot of competition rhythm and knows the way a fighter has to behave himself. He is a guy that helped a lot for this fight and I’m sure that he is going to help Rodrigo a lot in this fights against “Cro Cop,” Fedor … those guys. For sure he is going to put them down now, because he has more will now. Sometimes a loss helps a fighter to correct and get right where he was doing wrong and try to conquer a better technical level. Now he is returning, analyzing what he did wrong in his lasts fights. For sure he is going to fight the best fighters in his weight division and is gonna do well.
Sherdog.com: What is the message you left for your fans?
Nogueira: I know that the next round of the GP is going to be transmitted live to Brazil — this is good. It’s a sign that the Brazilians are going to root for me live. And let God makes his wishes, I’m going to be there, fighting against the better fighters in the world, but I’m prepared. I will know that my father and my mother will be rooting for me live and I will try to show my work to them. Besides the fighter, I’m going to go straight to submit him. A big hug and keep rooting for me.