Little Nog Defeats Luiz Cane

This was an amazing debut for Antonio Rogerio (not Rodrigo) Minotoro (not Minotauro) Nogueira. Yea, I'm gonna call him Little Nog too.

As for Luiz Cane, it's back to the freaking drawing board. Despite being a very good fighter, he looked amateurish next to Mr. Nogueira. Hopefully, he doesn't get discouraged from this loss. It's easy to get overwhelmed when you're taking a step up in competition. In theory, getting to that level will be your new motivation for training.

With his lightning-fast hands, Little Nog looked like Anderson Silva out there. He had Silva's legendary accuracy too. They must train together or something. In fact, Anderson was there in his corner! It was really funny watching Silva saunter into the ring after Little Nog won the fight. Compare Anderson's reaction to that of Big Nog. Minotauro (that's the bigger Nogueira) practically tackled his brother with a hug. Meanwhile, there's Anderson saying “Yea, you looked great tonight, but you're still not at my level.”

Then again, maybe I'm reading too much into things.

One thing does seem clear – the best way to defeat Little Nog would be to use a ground and pound strategy. He's not used to being in a cage. Wrestlers like to press their opponents up against the cage and work from there. In PRIDE, you could just fall through the damn ropes and get stood up in the center of the ring.

Nogueira is also not used to dealing with elbows. Cro Cop got put in a read bad spot the first time he got elbowed on the ground. So, if Little Nog keeps punching from a distance like he did tonight, he'll have nothing to worry about.

Next Fight: Paulo Thiago vs. Jacob Volkmann

Return to Fight Results