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| Article: |
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| DIE HARD |
David West |
When he was 10, Minotauro Nogueira was crushed by a truck. If that didn't stop him, can anyone in the UFC?
When Antonio Rodrigo “Minotauro” Nogueira was ten years old, he was run over by a truck. Literally run over. He was left with damage to his liver, punctured by his broken ribs, a broken leg, and he was in a coma for four days. But that wasn’t enough to stop him.
Both Mirko Cro Cop and Tim Sylvia have hit him with everything they have, and that wasn’t enough to stop him. He’s the ultimate survivor and now he’s the UFC Interim Heavyweight Champion. Can anything, let alone anyone, stop this guy?
KNOCKING ON HEAVEN’S DOOR
Nogueira was born on 2 June 1976 in Vitoria da Conquista, Bahia, Brazil, alongside his twin brother Antonio Rogerio. It was large family; in addition to the twins there was brother Julio and two sisters, Jamile and Juliana. When Nogueira was just five years old, he started taking Judo lessons.
After the truck accident five years later, he was left with the distinctive scars across his back that help observers tell him apart from his twin, although he had to spend almost a year recuperating in hospital due to the severity of his injuries. “I was talking with someone and when I saw the truck, it was on my side, so I couldn’t escape,” Nogueira said later.
“The tires went over my body, and I remember my brother tried to pull me to escape from there, but I couldn’t get out. I remember a lot of pain in my legs, and then the tires went over my belly and then my shoulder. I felt like I was going to die.”
When he was finally back on his feet, the doctor recommended he continue martial arts to further his physical rehabilitation. The physician must have had no idea at the time the punishment this would later entail for his patient, but you can’t fault the guy for his good intentions.
At 14 the young Minotauro moved over to Salvador to study electronics, where he started boxing under the direction of coach Acelino “Popó” Freitas at Triathlon Gym. He was cross training long before the idea became fashionable, and he expanded his horizons further when he decided to check out the Ju Jitsu classes run by decorated champion Guilherme Assad. It was an eye-opening experience.
“I was amazed at being finished by someone who was 20kg lighter than me and decided to start Ju Jitsu.” Like ducks and water, Nogueira and Ju Jitsu were made for each other. He won the Brazilian Championships in the blue belt division in 1996, then cleaned up the brown belt division two years later.
KING OF KINGS
Promoter Jamie Levine approached the talented grappler to make his MMA debut at World Extreme Fighting 6 in Florida, in June 1999. While the present incarnation of the WEF is a local-level promotion, in the early days of MMA in the US it was able to attract many future stars. Nogueira won his debut against David Dodd by Crucifix, and followed that with an armbar win over Nate Schroeder in under two minutes at WEF 7.
He fought twice more in 1999, although both fights were on the same night, as he headed to Japan for the opening round of the King Of Kings tournament in Rings. There he tapped out Holland’s Valentijn Overeem with a Kimura, then Iouri Kotchkine with an armbar to qualify for the second round. It was an auspicious start and aptly demonstrated just how far in advance Minotauro was when the action hit the ground.
Back in the States in January 2000, Nogueira went the distance for the first time against the hugely experienced Jeremy Horn, who at that point already had 46 professional fights under his belt – including a triangle win over Chuck Liddell. On the same bill at WEF 8 were future big names like Renato “Babalu” Sobral, Jens Pulver and Matt Hughes.
It was good company to be in, but Nogueira returned to Japan for the second stage of the Rings tournament. He took a majority decision win over Russian Sambo stylist, Andrei Kopylov, before suffering his first defeat in MMA when he lost a split decision to Dan Henderson, who went on to win the entire tournament. The victory propelled Henderson into the ranks of Pride, leaving Nogueira to continue plying his trade in Rings.
There was another key development that year: the formation of Brazilian Top Team, as a result of a split within the Carlson Gracie camp. From its inception, BTT focused much of its energy on adapting Ju Jitsu techniques for MMA and preparing its members to fight – members that included the Nogueira twins, Vitor Belfort, Paulo Filho and current UFC Middleweight Champ, Anderson Silva.
PRIDE OF A KING
Under the BTT banner as Rings launched its 2000 King Of Kings tourney, this time there was no halting Minotauro’s momentum. Russia’s Achmed Labasanov was the first to fall, tapping to an armbar at 1:38 of the first round. Then it was famous shoot wrestler Kiyoshi Tamura, who survived until round two before falling victim to another armbar, rapidly becoming a signature.
The conclusion of the tournament, in February 2001, saw Nogueira dispose of three opponents in the same night. It was the sort of gruelling format that the UFC had long since discarded, but it gave Nogueira ample chance to shine. Volk Han, the legendary Russian shooter and Sambo fighter, lasted the distance but lost by unanimous decision.
Pancrase veteran Hiromitsu Kanehara was undone by a rear naked choke 27 seconds into the second round, then in the finals Nogueira faced Valentijn Overeem in a rematch. Overeem’s route in the tournament included submitting both Randy Couture and Babalu Sobral, but Nogueira had his number, catching him in a head-and-arm choke to get the tapout and the championship at just the 1:20 mark of the opening round.
Nogueira was crowned the King Of Kings and the accolade was his ticket to Pride. His first opponent there was the imposing Gary “Big Daddy” Goodridge, a UFC veteran who had been a fixture at Pride right from the organisation’s inception. Though he had a patchy record, Big Daddy had utterly brutal knockout power in his punches. But he didn’t make it out of the first round, trapped and tapped by a vice-like triangle choke.
At Pride 16 Nogueira faced off against his biggest test to date: the first ever UFC Heavyweight and Pride Grand Prix Champion Mark “The Hammer” Coleman. Feared for his ground and pound style, which saw the massive wrestler pin opponents beneath his imposing frame and grind them into the canvas, this time it was Coleman in hostile territory on the mat, when Nogueira finished him with a combined triangle/armbar.
SLAYER OF GIANTS
By defeating the GP Champion, Nogueira put himself in contention for the newly conceived Pride Heavyweight Title. Standing between him and the belt was fellow contender Heath Herring, “The Texas Crazy Horse”. The two met in the ring at Pride 17: Championship Chaos and, after three hard-fought rounds, Minotauro took the unanimous decision and the shiny new belt.
The Brazilian was in the middle of an extraordinary winning streak. Kamikaze warrior Enson Inoue was his next victim, falling to a triangle, followed by Pancrase veteran Sanae Kikuta who gave Nogueira his first KO win. But in August 2002, Nogueira defended his title against his most imposing opponent yet – the walking mountain known as “The Beast” Bob Sapp.
While Sapp has never been the most technically gifted fighter, his physical attributes make him a dangerous proposition. At 6’5” and 350 pounds, he dwarfed the defending champion and made good use of his size, muscling out of submissions and almost breaking Nogueira’s neck by spiking him headfirst onto the canvas with a Ganso Bomb.
In his inimitable style, though, Minotauro hung tough. When Sapp started to gas out in the second round (as he always seems to), the champ latched on an armbar that put an end to The Beast’s title ambitions. But slaying one giant apparently wasn’t enough, as the Pride matchmakers followed up by throwing another monster at the Brazilian – Dutch kickboxer Semmy Schilt.
Standing just an inch under seven feet tall and weighing over 250 pounds, Schilt was technically razor sharp and knew how to use his huge reach to deadly effect. He’d already been King Of Pancrase and, later in his career, would win three consecutive K-1 Grand Prix titles. But while he was deadly on his feet, he couldn’t handle Nogueira on the ground and fell to one of the champion’s patented triangle chokes in the first round.
SURVIVE… IF I LET YOU
At Pride 24 Nogueira made good use of the chance to avenge an old defeat, when he beat Dan Henderson by armbar to conclude a remarkable 13-fight winning streak. Defying superstition, however, it was number 14 that proved unlucky.
While Minotauro had been defending his title, an awkward-looking Russian had moved to Pride after tearing his way through the Rings ranks (before the pioneering promotion finally wound up for good). Fedor Emelianenko arrived in Pride by beating Semmy Schilt by decision, then stopping Heath Herring on a cut after battering him for ten minutes.
A calm exterior (which meant that he often looked bored when waiting for the bell to ring) concealed a superbly talented grappler, also able to generate extraordinary striking power on the floor. He had only one loss on his record; a controversial one that came about by way of an illegal elbow in Rings. And, in his third Pride appearance, Fedor challenged Nogueira for his belt.
Although the fight lasted the distance, when the final bell rang there was no doubting that the Brazilian had been dethroned. Fedor could punch on his feet, he shook off submissions like a dog shaking off water and he was able to launch huge bombs from inside Nogueira’s guard, oblivious and unafraid of his normally lethal submission game.
It was a passing of the torch – Fedor won the belt in March 2003 and held onto it until Pride’s collapse in 2007. But Minotauro bounced back from the defeat with another winning streak, beginning with a decision over former UFC Heavyweight Champion Ricco Rodriguez in August. Then, in November, he was matched against a man thought by many to be the only person capable of beating Fedor – Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic.
BREAKING THE LAW
The opening ten-minute round saw the Croatian kickboxer do what he does best, smashing his brutal kicks into Nogueira over and over again. As the kicks slammed into Minotauro’s midsection it looked like he’d have to crumple, but he stubbornly stayed on his feet and barely survived the round.
Cro Cop came out for round two looking to pick up where he left off, but Nogueira managed to get his man down to the canvas. Mirko started to work back to his feet, leaving his arm dangling for a mere fraction of a second, but it was all the opportunity Nogueira needed.
He cranked on an armbar that forced the Croatian to tap out, leaving him with a look of utter disbelief on his face. He’d hit Nogueira with shots hard enough to drop a rhino, but it hadn’t been enough. The Brazilian was a submission master but he was also living proof of the old maxim that, while you can teach technique, you can’t teach tough.
With 2004 came the start of Pride’s Heavyweight Grand Prix, and Nogueira unveiled his latest submission – the Anaconda choke – to put away Hirotaka Yokoi and Heath Herring consecutively to take him to the semi-finals. There he beat heavy-handed Russian Sergei Kharitanov by decision, before facing Fedor for the second time in the championship showdown.
The much-anticipated rematch was cut short when a clash of heads opened up a big cut on Fedor, so the bout was ruled a no contest and rescheduled for Pride’s New Year’s Eve signature show, Shockwave 2004. Again, the durable Brazilian took Fedor the distance, but the Russian’s superb submission defence combined with inhuman ground and pound saw him retain his title.
CATCH WRESTLING VS BRAZILIAN JU JITSU
Nogueira fought just once in 2005, stopping Olympic Gold Judoka Pawel Nastula with punches in the first round, but 2006 proved much busier. He once again tapped out Kiyoshi Tamura by armbar to start the year in fine style, before making quick work of the behemoth 390-pound Zuluzinho with another trusty armbar in the opening bracket of the 2006 Openweight GP.
Handing Chute Boxe rival Fabricio Werdum the second loss of his career, Nogueira reached the semi-finals where Josh Barnett was waiting. The big American catch wrestler was a former UFC Champion (who memorably beat the tar out of Randy Couture to win the belt) and, in a clash of two of the best heavyweight grapplers in the game, Nogueira and Barnett went back and forth for the full duration.
Barnett nearly secured a kneebar in the closing moments of the fight, which was enough to take the split decision, and went on to the finals where he lost to Mirko Cro Cop after being poked in the eye. Three months later, at Pride’s 2006 New Year’s Eve supershow, Barnett and Nogueira met for the second time and again went the distance. But this time, the judges gave the unanimous nod to Minotauro – along with his revenge.
“I was asking for this match since the last time,” Nogueira said at the post-fight press conference. “We made a very close match last time and all the fans liked it, and the media here in America – everybody liked it. This match was very equal but he got the result last time. I was very disappointed about myself and I thought I could do better.”
Ending on a win was a great way to wrap up the Brazilian’s Pride career – and, to an extent, Pride itself. Within months the promotion that was once the biggest MMA show in the world was nothing more than a memory, broken apart by reports of Yakuza involvement, the loss of the group’s Japanese television deal and a botched attempt to sell the brand to Zuffa. But as one chapter ended, another was beginning.
WELCOME TO THE AFTERMATH
Although Zuffa never got Pride off the critical list, it succeeded in bringing Nogueira to the UFC. And his initiation to the Octagon would see him matched for the third time with Heath Herring, at UFC 73.
While on paper the outcome looked like a foregone conclusion, given that Minotauro had convincingly won their previous two encounters, the Texan almost pulled off a giant upset when he slammed a high kick into the side of the Brazilian’s head in the first round, dropping him like a bad habit. It seemed that Nogueira, like Cro Cop just months before, might be the latest high-priced Pride dignitary to be humbled in the cage.
But, somehow, Nogueira managed to cling to his wits and stayed conscious. Surviving to the end of the round, he came back revived and dominated the remainder of the fight to take the decision. It should have been a warning to his next opponent: you could hit Nogueira as hard as you wanted, but he wasn’t going to sleep. The guy was just plain uncooperative.
An unexpected development in the wake of Pride’s implosion had been the splintering of Brazil’s two best fighter factories – old rivals Brazilian Top Team and Chute Boxe. The Nogueira brothers, along with Anderson Silva and Vitor Belfort, had left BTT to found Black House. After the Herring fight, Minotauro credited his ability to come back from the hellacious knockdown to working with Silva.
“I got good sparring training, you know,” he said. “I train a lot with Anderson Silva, so I could go back because I got a lot of heart. I’m very happy because I
won that fight, I could manage that bad time.”
THE ART OF TAKING A BEATING
With Cro Cop failing to live up to his hype and reigning Heavyweight Champion Randy Couture involved in an increasingly acerbic dispute with the UFC, the group matched Nogueira with two-time former champion Tim Sylvia. A giant who cut weight to get down to the 265-pound limit, Sylvia was a 6’8” lumbering nightmare who, like Semmy Schilt, knew how to use his reach.
When they met in the cage, Sylvia used it to punch Nogueira in the face – a lot. For ten minutes, the American landed repeated jabs and straight rights to the head, dropping Minotauro in the first round and distorting his features as his face quickly started to swell from the battering he had taken…
For the rest of this feature, check out issue 29 of FSM – available at WH Smith and all good retailers. (For US readers we are now carried at Borders and Barnes & Noble, so check for local availability or click here to subscribe.)
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