ABU DHABI – [autotag]Antonio Rogerio Nogueira[/autotag] believes Saturday will mark his final professional MMA fight. He said he’s happy to close it out against a familiar foe.
The Brazilian legend Nogueira (23-9 MMA, 6-6 UFC), who has been competing since his August 2001 debut, will have a trilogy fight with longtime rival Mauricio Rua (26-11-1 MMA, 10-9-1 UFC) in the UFC on ESPN 14 co-main event, which takes place at Flash Forum at Yas Island in Abu Dhabi. Nothing is guaranteed, Nogueira said, but he said every feeling he has points to his being his retirement bout.
“My plan is to make a good fight, step-by-step,” Nogueira told reporters, including MMA Junkie, on Tuesday at UFC on ESPN 14 media day. “But I think it’s a good time to step now. I think it’s going to be the last one.”
Nogueira said retirement has been on his mind for some time. He was originally scheduled to fight Rua in March in Brazil, and a send-off in his home country would’ve been ideal. Injuries and the coronavirus pandemic prevented that from happening, and now it unfolds on “Fight Island.”
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Nogueira brothers, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, has been retired for several years and is now a UFC Hall of Famer. “Lil’ Nog” has opted to push on longer, but at 44, he said he thinks he pulled about every ounce of time out of the sport as he possible could.
“(I have) a lot of kids – a lot of work to do outside the cage,” Nogueira said. “In my last three years it was very difficult to train because I had herniated disc. I had to cancel a lot of fights. Every year I fought one time then the second one I would have to cancel. It was difficult for me my last three years.”
Although Nogueira admits the conditions of fighting with no crowd in an empty arena isn’t how he envisioned retirement, he couldn’t have picked a better opponent. His rivalry with “Shogun” goes back more than 15 years, with the pair first putting on the 2005 “Fight of the Year” under the now-defunct PRIDE banner. Rua won that bout by decision, then took the rematch at UFC 190 in August 2005, as well.
Nogueira thinks he had a good case for winning both fights, so going out by finally getting a win over Rua would be an ideal scenario
“It’s a very special moment for me. I’m going to fight with Mauricio for the third time. We made one of the best fights in PRIDE where everybody talk about this fight. We’re going to try to do our best to make a good impression like we did before in 2005. I thought in 2015 we made a very good fight, too. I think we have a good chance now to steal the show.”
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