Thoughts on nog/crocop

[Lefty]

i was amazed at nog's performance the other night. i thought he showed a great gameplan by cirlcing to his left to avoid mirko's big left round house kick. great gameplan and well thought out. up untill the end , nog took all the shots mirko could muster to prove once again , he's got a steel chin.

once again, this cements the fact that 2 years of grapling cant compete with a grappling master like nog. huge win for nog, unfortunately i think fedor is still the real champ. there was no need for a belt cerimony. fedor's got nog's number, but maybe mirko will have fedor's? who knows, this really made the heavyweight scene interesting.

[robbypark]

Great win for Nog.

Not to make any excuses at all, but Nog should thank his lucky stars for the bell. If round one had been 10 seconds longer, Cro Cop would have won.

I thought this was a fight that really Mirko lost rather than that Nog won. If Mirko was better prepared at the start of the second and not so damn cocky, I think he would have gone on to knock Nog out. Only wiith this loss will Mirko truly become a great fighter.

No taking away from Nogueira though. The man's amazing and deserved the victory.

[TheRockSays]

I thought the set up for the sub was great. I don't care what anyone says, the bell rang - time was up - Get Over it! If he was gonna knock Nog out he should have got the job done in the first round. Nog dominated him in the second, so there shouldn't be any debate. Hopefully, Nog will prepare better for Fedor a put on a great fight. I still think Fedor may pound Nog on the ground.

[Mike]

The key to the fight for me was Nobs ability to take punishment. He has a "Fujita-Hard" skull and takes severe punishment. Most others would have folded in round 1. I just hope he doesn't pay the price later in life for all that punishment like Ali. In fact, seeing Nog eat strikes from Fedor and Mirco reminded me of the wars Ali had with Frazier and both of them have damage.

Mirco fought to his strengths, Nog fought to his strengths but it was only Nogs ability to eat strikes that allowed him to execute his win.

[Borat]

I couldn't believe the punishment Nog was taking. The guy is scary.
I've been watching him fight in Pride for several years and am wondering
what the toll is on his body from all of these amazing matches.

Bob Sapp, H.Herring, Crocop, Fedor, Henderson, Coleman, etc. etc....

He is a true badass.

All of that "saved by the bell" BS needs to stop.

The victory was awesome and vintage Nog!!!!!

[DT]

I couldn't believe the punishment Nog was taking. The guy is scary.
I've been watching him fight in Pride for several years and am wondering
what the toll is on his body from all of these amazing matches.

I guess you don´t know his life story.

On June 2nd, 1976 was born Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira in Vitoria da Conquista, Bahia. He comes from a big family. Has the brothers Rogerio and Julio, and the sisters Jamile and Juliana. When he was 5 years old, begins his life in Martial Arts at Judo Gym. With Rogerio goes until they are 8 years old.

At the age of 10, he had the most difficult combat in his life: a truck ran over him and left a broken liver, which was perforated by the broken ribs and a broken leg. "The truck come in reverse gear and threw me on the ground, passing over my body slowly. My brother Rogerio tried to pull me but he couldn't. I only had time to move my head off the wheel and felt that weight squeezing my chest." After 4 days in coma and almost one year in the hospital, the warrior was ready to face a non-planed but a lot successful future. As a doctor's advice, he restarted to play Judo.

When Rodrigo was 14 years old, he moved to Salvador to study at a electronic school. He now divides his time with the studies and the training at Triathlon gym, where he started in boxing with coach of Arcelino Popo (CNB world champion).

In 1995, he started to have a look at Jiu-Jitsu classes of the Dellariva Team, Guilherme Assad. He got the invitation of a friend to go in for some classes. "I was amaze for bring finished by some one who was 20kg lighters then me and decided to start at Jiu-Jitsu".

Three week later, he was the champion in the White Belt and second place in the open division. He only knew how throw the opponent a few positions on the ground.

He was the Brazilian Champion in 1996 (Blue Belt) and 1998 (Brown Belt). In 1999 he went to USA where was introduced to the WEF promoters Jamie Levine. He won the Panamerican Jiu-Jitsu and got the black belt. In the same year, went to Judo championships there and got the black belt as well.

After his first MMA fight victory at WEF, he decided to stay there training Wrestling and Muay Thay, having more attentions to MMA.

Rodrigo decided to come back to Brazil after 2 years of conquests, having his own gym in Florida and bringing 3 victories at WEF and some more at King of Kings in Japan. He comes to Brazil searching for better Jiu-Jitsu trainings at Brazilian Top Team.

October 21, 200 the fighter gets a special prize. His daughter Tainá is born and makes the tough fighter becomes a kind and motivated father.

In his career, one of the best shows was at Pride 16, the most important MMA championship in Japan, where he destroyed Mark Colleman, a renamed MMA fighter. Since then, Minotauro got his place in MMA world and becomes idol for Japanese people.

In Japan he is a success. Where he goes, fans of all the generations ask for autographs, take pictures give presents and love to the MMA king.

The desire of the champion is to have his job recognized in his own country. It would be good to know Brazil is not only the soccer country.

With such amazing life story, our champion shows we should fight for our dreams even in difficult times, which were not few for him, and always achieve perfection in what we really believe. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira is an example. Congratulations Minotauro!

http://www.minotauro.net

[Lefty]

thank you for the in depth look at nog donna troy. i didnt know he trained with acelino "popo" freitas's coach. impressive.

[grapplingengineer]

Ok, now that we've established that you're his girlfriend, or sister, or mom, or agent, or historian, or librarian, the one thing you left out is what does he drive? Is he a truck man, or a sportscar man? Or horse?

[DT]

Ok, now that we've established that you're his girlfriend, or sister, or mom, or agent, or historian, or librarian, the one thing you left out is what does he drive? Is he a truck man, or a sportscar man? Or horse?

http://www.mmaringreport.com/YaBBImages/rolling.gif

[robbypark]

thanks for the bio. Gives a lot of insight on the great career of Minotauro.

[creampuff]

Nog must have taken quite a beating when he was younger to solidify a chin as strong as that. I mean it's astonishing

[kai]

that bio is just a little biased towards Nog because it's his own website, but good detailed description nonetheless.

[just Brian]

Nog vs. Mirko was a great fight. Here are some of my thoughts:

1: Mirko does have great take down defense / sprawl (yeah I know, that known).

2: Mirko did well in Nog's guard. There weren't any huge newbie blunders by Mirko and he went back to his feet without leaving his arm behind. Bare in mind, we're talking about Nog's guard here - deadly.

3: Mirko absolutely kills me when he waves at Nog to get up off the ground - AND - turns his back and walks away while he does it.

4: Mirko didn't lose his cool on the ground at all - even when mounted. It seemed that Mirko wasn't worried about getting KO'd there, he seemed to be biding his time to explode and buck Nog off. The point I'm trying to make is he didn't panic.

5: Nog struck me as naive when he went in to butt scoot mode with Mirko. Mirko was like "puh-leez".

6: Nog was getting battered at will by Mirko's stand up. (yeah I know, that goes without saying).

Bottom line - Great Fight!

[grapplingengineer]

Donna Troy, I can't see what you posted after I asked what Nog drives, but maybe you posted a picture of him driving something, and that would be funny to me. :) Thanks for hanging out here and sharing the encyclopedia of your brain.

Yeah, interesting fight, wasn't it JB. And awesome. It's rare that a fight brings very minute clusters of orbital fluid to gather near the outside corners of my eyes but this fight did. Though I like Nog alot, I don't think it was so much that but that a guy was getting beatdown pretty good, but turns it around and wins. Plus the mercy factor in allowing a guy to submit instead of just kicking his head off or breaking his arm (though there's definitely an opponent and a time and a place for that! :D ).

I agree that CroCop was doing pretty well on the ground really; being calm and such. But he was totally asking for the armbar. He kept his arms extended for long periods of time. He must stop that habit, which is natural for a striker. He's obviously smart though. He knows what his strengths are and sticks to them. If he learns to survive on the ground moreso, and transition skills (which he's already pretty good with), he just might be champ someday.

[robbypark]

Cro Cop was fighting a great fight until the second round started. He obviously wasn't adequately prepared for Nog's takdedown at the start of the round. It seemed as though he was either taken by surprise or he didn't sprawl because he thought they were too close to the ropes. I don't think Nog got the legit takedown on Cro Cop because that one time his takedown was too fast for Mirko's takedown defense. I mean, let's be honest, as evidenced by this fight and others, Minotauro's takedowns are somwhat slow and sloppy.

When Nog got Cro Cop to the ground, it still should not have been over. Mirko should have just covered up, layed there, and try to ride it out instead of bucking like a wild horse and leaving himself open for that armbar.

Minotauro Nogueira is a great fighter, but Mirko pretty much beat himself during that fight. I've said it before, but this fight is going to make Cro Cop an even better fighter than he was before. If Nog and Cro Cop should meet again, I don't think Nog stands a fleeting chance in hell of beating Cro Cop again.

I think Cro Cop's still pretty pissed about the loss and is ready is to unload. I feel sorry for his next opponent.

[debacle]

well said. The next bum who steps into the ring with Cro Cop is going to get destroyed!

[makavelli]

I heard co cop is fighting barnett next? is that true? That would be a super fight!

[FULL_CONTACT[MBRP]]

Round 1 - Minotauro did real good playing Cro Cop's game. Who else could ate all that leather and roundhouses without falling apart? And for all of you that say "if round 1 was 10 seconds longer Minotauro'd have been K.O.'d" i guess you didnt realize that when Cro Cop hit that left kick + left hand combination Minotauro went to the mat completly conscious waiting for Cro Cop's next move (which by the way would be calling Minotauro up again)
Round 2 - In 1 minute playing Minotauro's game Cro Cop was like a fish out of water

What a great fight
Great win for Nog

Was it me or Mirko is as cocky as he seemed in the pay-per-view?