Antônio Rodrigo "Minotauro" Nogueira

 

Fighting out of	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Age	32
Height	6' 1" (185 cm)
Weight	240 lbs. (109 kg)
Overall MMA Record (W-L-D)	31-4-1
Strengths	Stamina, Great Jiu-Jitsu and Boxing Skills

 

Competing in the WEF and RINGS organisations early on in his career, Nogueria quickly amassed an 11-1-1 record over an eighteen month period, including a forty man tournament which involved winning 3 fights in the same night. The majority of these fights took place in Japan, where Nogueira called his fighting home for a total of seven years after signing with Asia based Pride Fighting Championship due to the collapse of the RINGS promotion. He debuted in July 01, quickly submitting Gary Goodridge in the first round, before defeating former UFC champion, Mark Coleman, again in round one.

Soon after, the Japan based promotion decided to crown its first ever heavyweight champion and a match between Nogueira and Heath Herring was set for the end of 2001. Although being his first fight to go the distance in Pride, Nogueira won a unanimous decision to capture the title before returning to more decisive ways against two Japanese opponents. In August 02, he became a crowd favourite, taking on a man who out weighed him by 150lb’s, Bob Sapp in a Pride/K1 cross promotion. Man handled by his much larger opponent early on, including being spiked into the ring canvas, Nogueira slapped on an arm bar to finish the fight as Sapp tired in the second round. Many fans believed him to be superhuman after the amount of punishment he had taken in this fight and recovered from and yet he was quickly back in action, defeating Dutch karate fighter Semmy Schilt and Dan Henderson less than a month apart.

His next fight came against Russian Sambo champion Fedor Emelianenko, who he would lose his belt to by decision, before bouncing back with a five fight win streat against the likes of Ricco Rodriguez, Mirko Filipović & Heath Herring. A rematch with Emelianenko was set for August 04, but after an accidental head butt in the first round caused Fedor to be cut, the fight was reset for December. Although coming in with a much improved strategy from the first fight, he suffered another unanimous decision loss to Emelianenko. In the final 18 months of Prides existance, Nogueira would win five of his six fights, losing only to Josh Barnett by split decision, a loss he would avenge in his very next fight.

In April 07, the UFC offically announced he had signed with their organisation at UFC 69 and he was soon after schedualled to face old foe Heath Herring in his debut in early July. With the first round under control and displaying his excellent boxing skill’s, Nogueira was hit with a head kick, many believed was going to finish the fight, but his experience paid off and he recovered his compose and edged a decision victory. Impressed with his debut victory and knowing his pedigree Nogueira was thrown straight into the title mix to face Tim Sylvia at UFC 81 for the UFC interim heavyweight title. Waiting for his opportunity to take this to the ground and surviving another early knockdown, he subbmitted the much larger Sylvia in the third round to become the first fighter to hold both the UFC and Pride heavyweight championships. One interesting note is that although losing four fights during his career, he has never been stopped, losing all four by decision, two of which were split decision.