Ready for his UFC debut against Luis Cane, the Bahia native Rogério “Minotouro” Nogueira spoke with TATAME.com about the training, the strategy for the fight and his brother’s fight against Randy Couture, on UFC 102. “Rodrigo dominated the octagon, making Couture walk behind. We told him to hit and get out, but he said he wanted to go for it”, said Rogério, in an exclusive interview with TATAME.com.
How are the training?
Actually I rest for a week after this fight I was going to make at Bitetti Combat. I was negociating with Ultimate, I had an injury on my foot, but I got better after resting. I’m 100% now, and now it's time to train and don’t waist time to be on top on my UFC debut.
How Ultimate called you? What did you think about fighting Banha?
We were trying to do something with UFC for a long time, it’s definitely a great event, and after the agreement they chose my opponent. It’s bad, I preferred to fight against an American. Banha is from American Top Team and we train there all the time, it’s kinda BTT disguised.
What do you expect of this fight and what’s your strategy?
I’m training all the possibilities. We’re training Boxing, Muay Thai, the ground, because on MMA you have to train it all. There’s no way to use only one weapon to win a fight, I gotta be good on Boxing, on kicks and knees defense, knows how to kick, use it all, or the guy comes much more prepared than you. Banha is young, fast, with a great record, but I’m here, training Boxing and Muay Thai.
Who are the guys that take your attention on MMA nowadays?
What did you think about your brother’s fight? Did you expect his domain?
I expected because Rodrigo has a consistent game. He was the only man to reach Randy Couture. Couture always pressures everyone and Rodrigo dominated the octagon, making Couture walk behind. We told him to hit and get out, but he said he wanted to go for it. Then he was hit once and beat Randy three times.
Minotauro got the knockdown and went for an arm triangle choke. Do you think that if he had punched from the side control he’d probably finish the fight?
Oh man, it’s his instinct. When the guy fell down, dizzy, he thought that was the time to submit, but no, the guy is tough, I don’t know how he handled that pressure. He uses vaseline on his face and gets slippery.
What do you think about female MMA’s growth with Cris Cyborg fights?
Cris is great, man, extremely strong, very aggressive, explosive, well trained, really powerful. She’s the queen between women. Female MMA is growing with the male, we can notice that it’s a bad moment for female Boxing, but MMA, everybody’s watching, talking about the fight. Female MMA is taking media’s attention.
Who are the revelations of Minotauro Team?
We have a terrific guy from Vitória, Rodrigo Kanu, he has a heavy hand, Chatubinha is getting better standing up, he’s training in the morning, afternoon and night. There’s Chatuba, who’s really good, Éder Jones... There’s a good group coming.
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