Nogueira says knockout over Schaub was “surprising”, wants Mir next

http://www.tatame.com/2011/08/29/Nogueira-says-knockout-over-Schaub-was-surprising-wants-Mir-next

Rodrigo Nogueira thrilled Brazil. Used to epic battles in the rings, the giant Brazilian fighter went through months of fear and doubts, fighting the injuries back with three delicate surgeries on the knees and hip. On the perfect comeback, on his 40th MMA fight, the first one in Brazil, he beat up the young promise Brendan Schaub in a way nobody would see coming, not even him: with a KO on the first round. On an exclusive interview with TATAME, the heavyweight fighter talked about his surgeries, the healing process, the fans’ doubts about his future in MMA, and he also explained why he didn’t cry after the fight, revealing the wish to return to UFC in Japan, Canada or Brazil, and he already has an opponent in mind: Frank Mir.

It couldn’t go any better this first fight in Brazil, right?

It was a surprising knockout. The guys expected me to take him down, but I distract him a little. I went for his leg and then his body, only using my striking skills, not using the tactic to take him down. I moved my head a lot too. He started fast, but I dodged. It was awesome. What a big party!

Before the fight, you had a #FinalizaMinotauro (Submit Minotauro) campaign in Twitter, but you won while standing yo. Was your game plan to take him down or did you use it to mix him up and trade punches with him?

I was ready to fight anywhere, I was ready for everything. I was huge in the ground, feeling fine. I guess it was my best camp of all, with names like De La Riva coming up to help me. He spent the whole time with me. I also had the support of Ramon Lemos, who’s a coach at Atos, and he came down to help me on the last days of training. I trained with five black belts and they all tapped out twice, man. I was really huge on the ground game.

I called Josh Janousek in for Wrestling... I really spent a lot of money on this camp, bringing down here a good American wrestler so that I could be good with my Wrestling, besides the work I did with (Luis Carlos) Dorea and Erivan Conceicao, who’s a Boxing coach. I’ve worked the encounter Boxing.

Before going to the fight, Junior (dos Santos) kept telling me to ‘use this one, this one’. It’s like a punch, a jab and a powerful left hand. I got Schaub with his back at Dorea, Rogerio and Junior. And the guys kept yelling ‘do it now, now, now’... When they yelled ‘go’, I moved my head and punched him (laughs). It was automatic, it was the right timing. I guess he thought I would grab his legs and I fit an upper punch. He didn’t know I’d strike as much, It really was a surprising knockout.

When it was over everybody was touched, many cried, but you didn’t drop one single tear. Why didn’t you cry afterwards?

It was like an outflow to me. Many things happened. It was like an outflow to those who didn’t believe in me. You saw I had an angry face, but it wasn’t about Schaub, I don’t feel any anger towards him. It was an outflow for those who told me to retire, to those who asked Dana White if he would retire me after this fight... I won’t retire.

So I unburdened this doubts about me, because people don’t know what I went through so that I could be in there, because I had to go through three surgeries... Until four months ago, I only walked with crutches. A month and a half ago I’d put my hand on my leg and I turned to my physiotherapist Angela Cortez and said: ‘it’s really tough today. Will I make it there?’, and she’d said to me: ‘go, Rodrigo’. She was someone who believed in me. My physical coach was Claudio Pavanelli. She was with me since the beginning and Pavanelli spent these last four months with me.

That was like an outflow, an outflow to my former sponsor, who’s someone I’ve helped, but then he cancelled my sponsorship one month and a half before the fight... I wanted to say many things to those who didn’t believe in me, those who thought I was going to lose. You can see I had anger in my face when I got in there. But I don’t feel any anger towards my opponent, I feel it towards people who do that. I guess people should believe more.

Once again you proved the world you’re like Rocky Balboa, getting in there like an underdog and, while fighting big guys, you’ve triumphed...

I like challenges. I just need to stop and get focused for three months, like I did now. I have a column on a paper, two gyms filled with students... Besides training we do many thigns too. I have almost 15 sons in my gym and I have to take care of their diet, their bouts... It’s hard. But, if I can stop and train hard for three months, I get good. I’ve stopped my Schedule for a while but, even doing that, there’s much things I do besides training. But, on this fight, I dedicated myself to the job and it was pretty good, it was the result of three months of trainings.

We saw your evolution since your first train. You was still limping, doing physiotherapy and stretching with Angela for like one hour before actually start training. Two weeks before the fight you were already doing much better. How important this work with Angela and Pavanelli was?

It was really important. Besides the work with Angela, and all the physiotherapy sessions, he was a very positive person, she did a great psychological work too. When I got there, she told me: ‘see, so that we can work together you won’t do physiotherapy seeking for healing. We do physiotherapy here with goal. What is your goal?’ I sat down at the clinic in Barra da Tijuca and said: ‘my goal is to fight again’. And then she told me: ‘tell me a date’. I thought, and it seems crazy, but I told her I wanted to fight in October, December... Then she said: ‘ok. Until December we’ve got plenty time’. Then I told her ‘yeah, but my dream is to fight in UFC Brazil’. She then looked at me and asked: ‘is this really your dream?’, and I said ‘yes, it is’. She turned to me and said: ‘so we’ll make your dream come true’.

I told her the doctor would have to work with me later, and then she said: ‘I trust you. Do you trust me? I believe in you’. I knew August was too soon, that I would have a short time to train, I thought i couldn’t make it, I wasn’t feeling safe to fight on that date. But she told me: ‘Rodrigo, if you have a goal, we’ll work on this goal and you’ll make it. With no goal, with no agenda, we can’t make it’.

As the time went by, I didn’t need to use the crutches anymore and she told me she was introducing me to a guy who’d work my body, Pavanelli. He went to my house, he saw me getting out of the pool with crutches, when I couldn’t walk by myself. He did a two-week work on the pool, only water exercizes. Then we starting working my muscles out. We didn’t do much back then, just one or two things. I used the cruthces on the strengthening process. I left one exercize and had the help of the crutches to get to the other for like a month and a half. We worked together with the crutches for a months so that I could train again. I had much perseverence too. One day after the surgery I looked for a physiotherapist at the clinic and did like half na hour of arm bike. I was spending over one leg and doing it one day after my surgery.

The doctors went crazy. My coach too. I said: ‘hold me’, because I had just gone through a surgery, but I really believed in me. I wanted to come back. One or two months before the fight I said: ‘Angela, I won’t make it. It’s too close and I’m not fast with my leg, I’m not yet flexible’. I said it like a month ago. And then she asked me: ‘how are you doing?’, and I told her I was limping and using the crutches still. And then she told me that whitin a month I’d be ok. I was waiting to tell UFC guys if I was going to make it or not.

A month before the fight she asked me if I was doing better and I told her I was doing better, but not a lot better. And she told me I’d be fine in a month. So it was planned. 21 days before the fight I already was 100%. I was 100% three weeks before the fight. Bigfoot got here and it was crucial. Dos Santos also got here so I could test myself. Three weeks before the fight these guys got here and helped me on the final part of my trainings. Feijao helped me a lot when I started training, and, in the end, Bigfoot and Junior helped me a lot.

You said at the press conference that, for the first time, you’d be fighting at your best in UFC. Were you really 100% healed? Did you wonder if you had rushed things too much and got scared of fight a young guy with no injuries?

We always wonder if we’re goo to go. Will I make it? I had that in mind. On the last weeks I remained focused, I went to a friend’s house, who helped me with all this Internacional thing (e sponsorship of a soccer team), and I stayed there, focused. I was scared, but confident, I was doing fine and well trained. The boy’s tough, I knew he would be, but I’ve trained a lot and I was confident. I just didn’t know what could happen...

I knew my ground game was better than his and I knew I could trade punches with him, that I could smash him while striking. I didn’t move backwards. He came and I moved forwards. If I wasn’t trying to get his leg, I was punching him on his body and moved forwards. He was the one who moved back. I forced him at all times, he walked a loto n the Cage and that was exactly what I wanted to do: to corner him and go for his legs. I punched him and I’d go for his legs, but it all changed. I had other options on that fight. I felt good.

What are the expectations for your future in UFC? Do you hope to fight Frank Mir, since he has no bout scheduled and you’d fight each other in the past?

I’d like to fight Frank Mir, I want to fight UFC Japan. I’d like to fight UFC Canada, which will happen later this year. Fighting Frank Mir is something I’d Love to do. I’m motivated to fight him.

Feel free to send a message to everyone who believed in you and knew you’d come back with a great performance...

For those who believed in me or not, because I knew there’d be people in there who didn’t believe in me but would cheer for me... I came from a loss by knockout, I came from three surgeries, and they weren’t simple surgeries, so I get it... I went through three surgeries on my hip and knees. For those who believed in me or not, I want to say I accepted this fight in short notice, but I’d like to tell people I’m back. I’m back now. I still have a lot to do and I want to represent Brazil many times and fight in Brazil again. It was wonderful to fight in Rio, it was great to fight at home. I’d like to fight here again, so I can’t wait to fight in UFC in Brazil again because i want to be here representing our country.

I was happy to see Big Nog score that win, he'll remember that day for the rest of his life.

Great win for him. However, Mir would batter him on the feet just like last time. A sad reality at this point

bobbitt15 wrote:

Great win for him. However, Mir would batter him on the feet just like last time. A sad reality at this point

Agreed.

EPIC!
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