Issue 028
August 2007
If you’ve never heard the legend, the Minotaur was a mythical man-beast with the body of a man but the head of a bull.
The fearsome Minotaur roamed the Cretan Labyrinth, and fed upon the bodies of those foolish enough to venture into its depths. Those who entered the Labyrinth not only had to contend with the insurmountable challenge of finding their way out again, but also the attention of a fearsome creature hell-bent on destroying them.
Antonio Rodrigo ‘Minotauro’ Nogueira isn’t quite as fearsome as his namesake, but if you’re his opponent, you dare not take him lightly. To grapple with him is to enter the Labyrinth. Even if you were able to survive his legendary guard, you’d find that that there is a man on the end of it capable of hurting you in all manner of ways. A veteran of over thirty fights, a former Pride heavyweight champion and now the most recent addition to the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s (UFC) growing heavyweight roster Nogueira is out for blood and gold.
A representative of the Brazilian Top Team (BTT), Minotauro has long been associated with fellow Pride stars Vitor Belfort, Ricardo Arona, Mario Sperry and Murillo Bustamante. Even Minotauro’s twin brother, Rogerio, has fought in Pride, but with the change in his employer also comes a change in his training. “I’ve been training a lot in the cage at the Black House gym, they have a cage over there. It’s good to train in a cage; and I’ve been training a lot. I’ve been training there every day, how to move in there, how to get up off the cage, I think I will have no problem there. I’ve been training with Vitor Belfort, I got my brother and eight guys to help me, we got pretty good training now.”
The BTT has always been seen as one of the strongest teams around, not only in the sense of having exceptional fighters, but also in that their bond was seen to be almost familial. According to Nogueira though, there are no issues at play. As for the rumoured problems between him and his fellow BTT’ers Sperry and Bustamante, things aren’t as bad as they were made out in the press. “They are good guys, they are good friends. We got a friendship for like eight years, it’s where I began my career. Just for this fight I’ve been training there [Black House] but we have no problem at all. My brother has still been going there, and my friends, you know, but for this fight I have been training with others.”
“I always root for them, I like to watch Murillo’s and Mario’s fights and they give me a lot, they help me a lot in my career. I help them a lot too as a fighter, I bring my guys, my students, all my fighters to train with them. I help to build the team and they help me a lot.”
Minotauro joining the UFC may seem like the Brazilian is entering uncharted territory, but this isn’t the first time the 31-year-old will have fought in a cage. Nogueira actually began his MMA career in the promotion World Extreme Fighting in 1999, an American event held in a cage. The raw promotion saw masses of talent cut their teeth (Jens Pulver, Jeremy Horn and more) and Nogueira would fight for them three times. “I chose to begin my career over there (USA) a long time ago, seven to eight years ago! I improved a lot in that time, I was a young guy… I had good technique but I wasn’t a good fighter like I am now. I wasn’t a professional back then, I didn’t have sparring like I do now, or a boxing coach. I think when I go back to America now I will have a lot to show, and I will get a lot of fans there.”
Nogueira is open in saying that joining the UFC will not be easy (“It’s a big challenge in my life”) but he feels well prepared and confident in his ability not only to hang with the best of the heavyweight division, but also to win fans. “I have a lot to show [the fans], some people will see me as the new guy, some Brazilian fighter, but after a couple of fights they will see me and they will see my technique and they will come to like me, I know that.”
Technique is something you cannot help but associate with Minotauro. His nickname conjures up images of an uncontrolled brute, but in that respect he is nothing like his namesake. Instead he is a technician par excellence, noted for his slick ground skills and finely honed submissions (I asked him if he thought there was anyone in the UFC with better jiu-jitsu than him. His answer: “I don’t think so, hahaha!”). His win over the fearsome Mark Coleman via triangle was seen as a shifting point for jiu-jitsu in MMA, and the Japanese loved him for his ability to overcome aggression and strength using pure technique. They tested him further by giving him increasingly bigger and scarier opponents (Bob Sapp and Zuluzinho are two such examples) and he passed with flying colours.
Nogueira has been aware of his failings though, and has consistently made efforts to work on them. “When I began martial arts I trained boxing first, but when I found jiu-jitsu I was focussed more on training that. I fell in love, haha! I was training jiu-jitsu like three times a day; in the morning, the day and the night-time. I was doing boxing and stuff, and I had to pick what to do, so I pick more jiu-jitsu. But I met my boxing coach again and he started coaching me and working with me in 2003. From then I improved my boxing a lot. Now I am a complete fighter. I improved my wrestling, and I improved my boxing a lot.”
Such was Nogueira’s improvement in his stand up skills he even planned to fight for the Brazilian Olympic boxing team. “I was going to the Olympic trials for the boxing, I was training for it, but I had to decide [between them] because it was the same time as the tournament [Pride Grand Prix]. I picked Pride.”
His training paid off when he met the Russian giant Sergei Kharitonov, a training partner of his nemesis Fedor Emelianenko. “Kharitonov, he showed beautiful boxing, he is the best boxer I ever seen in MMA. He showed that in his fights against Ninja, Pedro Rizzo, all of those guys”. Nogueira went out and stood toe-to-toe with Kharitonov, standing in the centre of the ring throwing and slipping punches looking, to all extents and purposes, like a boxer. “I was training a lot to beat this guy at his game. That’s why it was good for me. It was a big challenge. His coach told me, ‘you beat him at his game’.”
I asked whether we would see more of this when he enters the UFC, but he could not answer for sure (“It depends on the type of guy I fight. The fight goes because of the opponent”). He said that he wasn’t going to make the same mistake as Cro Cop and that he was prepared for the difference between UFC and Pride’s rules. “I never worked too much on my elbows but I’ve improved a lot, we’ve been doing a lot of this. I’ll think I’m gonna throw some elbows on the ground. I think that the only thing for me when I get in the cage is how to get out of there and to throw my elbows.”
One of the first things I heard mentioned by people around me when I first met Nogueira was “Wow, he’s a real heavyweight”. People are generally taken aback by his size. Naturally big and solid, he does not have a pumped up body or bloated muscles. Instead, the tall Brazilian has a strong torso, thick neck and long, heavy limbs. You see his ears, his heavy brow and his broad shoulders and you can’t help but feel a slight uneasiness being so close to him. He has the assured air of a real fighter.
All that melts away though when he smiles. When he grins, it is like a crack has opened in the earth. His eyes squint, his cheeks raise and his lips stretch across his face. He may be one of the top combative athletes on the planet but he radiates a friendly warmth that endears him to fans. In Japan he was something of an idol to the public (especially the ladies), with crowds waiting for hours outside his hotel for an autograph and a photo. While some fighters shy away from it, Nogueira understands the need to be in touch with fans. “It’s a part of the job, you know? It don’t make sense to take a picture [with the fans] and then not be in touch with people. I like the connection with my fans, all of my fans, I like them a lot.
Good support from people is good motivation. You don’t get there if you don’t have the support of the fans. I fight for my fans.”
The UFC heavyweight division is hotting up and with Nogueira entering the UFC this opens up another dimension to the ongoing battle for the heavyweight belt currently held by Randy Couture. We asked Nogueira his thoughts on those who, along with him, are on the quest for heavyweight gold.
Minotauro on the UFC heavyweights
CRO COP
“He is a good guy. I’ve got a lot of respect for him. The biggest fight of my life was against him. I will fight him for sure.”
GABRIEL GONZAGA
“I think it would be a beautiful match you know, Gonzaga is good, but I trust in myself and on the ground I could get this guy.”
TIM SYLVIA
“He is a tough guy, he is tall and has a good jab, but I think that if I could get close and we grapple I could control him and make a good fight.”
ANDREI ARLOVSKI
“That guy’s good, good hands, he moves good. Hard to put him on the ground, I think it would be very exciting.”
RANDY COUTURE
“That’s a fight I wanted a long time ago, the time we fought in Rings. We went to the finals of the tournament, I was sure I was going to fight against him, I would love to make this fight.”
