Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira looked terrible against Frank Mir

However, eight months after the Mir debacle, Nogueira looked like one of the
top mixed martial artists on the planet in dominating Randy Couture.
Nogueira won a clear-cut unanimous decision against the UFC legend.

So which “Big Nog” can we expect to see in the future?

The answer will be revealed very shortly at UFC 110 on Saturday, February
20. Nogueira is set to step into the cage against an undefeated fighter many
observers feel is a huge part of the heavyweight future, Cain Velasquez.

Velasquez, the two-time All-American wrestler at Arizona State University,
has ripped off seven straight victories to start his career. Of the seven
wins, only one man (Cheick Kongo) even made it to the scorecards. The other
six fighters all fell by TKO.

But none of the men Velasquez defeated have anything close to the career
accolades of Nogueira. Besides Kongo, Velasquez’s biggest win was against
former IFL star Ben Rothwell.

On the other hand, Nogueira is the only man to hold heavyweight
championships in both Pride FC and the UFC. He’s beaten proven MMA stars
like Mirko Cro Cop, Josh Barnett, and Dan Henderson.

The match-up between Nogueira and Velasquez will be a true test of where
each fighter stands today and for the future.

“I’m very excited for the fight,” Nogueira said about the upcoming match-up.
“Wherever it goes, I’ll be ready.”

Nogueira is widely known for being one of the best submissions fighters in
the history of the sport. With Velasquez being a top-level wrestler,
Nogueira could find himself on his back early on.

“If he takes me down, we’re going for submissions,” Nogueira said. “My
jiu-jitsu will be 100 percent.”

The Brazilian star understands that takedowns are a big part of Velasquez’s
skill set. To prepare, Nogueira has enlisted the help of two All-American
wrestlers-Strikeforce light heavyweight Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal and UFC
middleweight Mark Munoz.

“King Mo is one the best wrestlers in America,” Nogueira said. “We do a lot
of single leg and double leg defense. I have a very good camp here.”

Should Nogueira defeat Velasquez, he’ll likely be in line for another shot
at the heavyweight title. With the Frank Mir vs. Shane Carwin winner slated
to face Brock Lesnar sometime this summer, Nogueira would likely have to
wait until fall of 2010 to receive the chance.

Nogueira is highly interested in fighting for the title, but he has not
forgotten about his poor performance against Mir. Mir laid a two round
beating on the former champion in December 2008. Nogueira also does not like
Mir’s constant trash-talking.

“If I fight against Mir, it will be different. I’ll be in better shape and
no injuries,” Nogueira said, alluding to the rumor that he had a staph
infection just prior to the fight.

“I don’t like how Mir talks. I come from jiu-jitsu. I come from martial
arts. I train hard, and I respect my opponent. I will never say anything bad
about my opponent. My opponent works hard so that’s my way. I don’t think he
shows respect.”

Another man in the heavyweight title picture is Nogueira’s teammate Junior
Dos Santos.

As a top prospect in the UFC, Dos Santos is even more accomplished than
Velasquez. He has won 10 of 11 fights, and he defeated MMA stars Mirko Cro
Cop, Gilbert Yvel, and Fabricio Werdum along the way.

“Never,” Nogueira said, when asked if he would ever fight Dos Santos. “To
me, that would be like fighting my brother (current UFC fighter Antonio
Rogerio Nogueira). No money would be worth it to fight one of my best
friends.”

While Nogueira battles at heavyweight, his identical twin brother campaigns
in the light heavyweight division. Nogueira gives a simple explanation as to
why.

“I don’t want to be competitive with my brother,” Nogueira said. “I was
always a little bigger than him-maybe 12 pounds. He can make 205.”

Prior to joining the UFC, Nogueira had a very successful stint in Pride FC
over in Japan. However, one man Nogueira could not defeat in three attempts
was consensus top heavyweight Fedor Emelianenko. Over the past few years,
Emelianenko was heavily rumored to be joining the UFC, but no deal ever came
to fruition.

“That’s his choice,” Nogueira said about Emelianenko’s decision to sign with
Strikeforce. “He doesn’t want to come and join the UFC show? Some other guy
will. The UFC has the best heavyweights. If he comes to the UFC, he’s going
to face the best guys.”

Nogueira and Emelianenko last fought almost five years ago when Nogueira was
28. Now 33 and a veteran of 38 fights, Nogueira has dismissed any talk of
retirement.

“I think I could fight until 37,” Nogueira said. “I’m in really good shape.
I’ll fight until my body tells me I can’t.”

The upcoming fight will go a long way in showing Nogueira exactly where his
body is. Is he the fighter that was dominated by Mir? Or is he the warrior
that took apart Couture?

Nogueira will certainly find out the answers against Velasquez at UFC 110.

In predicting the fight, Nogueira stopped short of declaring victory, but he
did promise a memorable match-up.

“I feel good,” he said. “I’m going to do the best show possible.”

When people think of pioneers in the sport of MMA, Frank Shamrock’s name is not usually mentioned. The names Royce Gracie, Randy Couture, Ken Shamrock (Frank’s brother via adoption), and Chuck Liddell—just to name a few—are much more prominent.

Plus, if it was up to the UFC, Shamrock’s name would be forgotten entirely, and as a result, a big part of the sport’s history would go unnoticed.

For the two year time period from Dec 97 to Sep 99, Shamrock was the most dominant fighter in the promotion. In his very first fight with the UFC, Shamrock submitted Kevin Jackson in just 14 seconds to win the light heavyweight title (then named the middleweight championship).

Following the Jackson win, Shamrock defeated Igor Zinoviev, Jeremy Horn, and John Lober in successive fights. After a one-fight sabbatical in Japan (a draw with Kiyoshi Tamura for the Rings promotion), Shamrock returned to the UFC for what his most memorable fight.

In a twenty-minute war, Shamrock outlasted Tito Ortiz to keep hold of the title. Ortiz finally gave in as he tapped out due to strikes at the end of the fourth round.

The epic fight with Ortiz would be the last time Shamrock would ever fight in the UFC.

“I was in the era of the beginning of free agency,” Shamrock said, when asked why he never fought again in the UFC. “That really went against the whole beginning of the company. It went against their model—the whole corporate control it all thing.”

When the UFC rolled out their list of the top 100 fights in the history of the company, Shamrock vs. Ortiz was suspiciously left off. Or maybe it was not too surprising. UFC President Dana White is definitely not Shamrock’s biggest fan.

White has often referred to Shamrock as both a “moron” and a “jackass”.

“I thought it was small-minded and silly,” Shamrock said about his exclusion from the top 100 list. “It is what it is.”

Rather than sit back and allow the UFC remove him from the sport’s history, Shamrock has done the one thing that he probably still does better than anyone else in the sport —talk.

“It’s been a blessing,” Shamrock said about not being with Zuffa. “I get more media, more press and more opportunity because of it.”

Since departing from the UFC, Shamrock has become one of the top stars for two different promotions. First, he was the face of the ill-fated EliteXC, and now, he is a top draw for Scott Coker’s Strikeforce.

Recently though, Shamrock has not had a great deal of success inside the cage. He has lost three of his last four fights (Nick Diaz, Cung Le, and Renzo Gracie), and the only win was an exciting victory against an overmatched Phil Baroni.

Nevertheless, Shamrock is not ready to call it a career just yet.

“I was looking at a March time,” Shamrock said about a possible return. “We’re still trying to see if we have a reserved March date for Showtime. Or May if we don’t get March together.”

As far as a possible opponent, Shamrock is not sure who he will be facing in the early part of 2010, but he did drop a famous name for a future opponent.

“I’d love to fight Dan Henderson,” Shamrock said. “We did a submission wrestling match a few years ago, and I got him real quick. We’ve sparred together and kind of circled each other for years.”

Shamrock believes his next fight will be on cable television instead of the larger platform offered by CBS.

“I don’t know if I have what CBS is looking for right now,” Shamrock said. “There are other guys fighting for titles. I don’t know if I can mess with the (Ronaldo) Jacare’s of the world.”

What CBS does want to televise is the man generally regarded as the sport’s top heavyweight, Fedor Emelianenko.

Even though Strikeforce is building its own core of stars with fighters like Robbie Lawler, Jake Shields, and Gilbert Melendez, Emelianenko is clearly the guy everyone wants to see above all others.

EliteXC was not able to have a successful show on CBS without the drawing power of Kimbo Slice. Could Strikeforce be falling into the same problem with Emelianenko as EliteXC did with Slice?

Shamrock was non-committal when asked if CBS could broadcast a card without the prized Russian.

“I think so,” Shamrock said, “ but I don’t think it would have the same excitement.”

Emelianenko made his successful debut for the company last Nov on CBS. Another man set to start with Strikeforce at the end of the month is former NFL running back Herschel Walker.

“The question has always been—‘what would happen if you take a super athlete and plug him into MMA?’” Shamrock said about Walker’s debut. “I guess now we’ll know.”

Shamrock is excited by the prospects of Walker starting with Strikeforce even if it at the age of 47.

“I think it’s awesome, crazy and amazing,” Shamrock said. “He knows Taw Kwon Do and striking. He knows little about fighting, but he’s really knuckled down.”

Seeing Walker train mixed martial arts seriously has convinced Shamrock that Walker’s debut will not be a freak show. Unfortunately, athletes like Jose Canseco and Johnnie Morton tried making the transition in the past with disastrous results.

Shamrock believes people now have a better understanding of the severity of the sport.

“The thing that scared me from the beginning was the reality of men fighting,” Shamrock said. “It’s just so dangerous. I like that it is really a sport now, and I’m happy with the rules and regulations of the game.”

On the other hand, Shamrock is very clear with what he does not like about MMA, and it comes straight back to the UFC.

“I don’t like that it’s not always promoted as a sport and some promotions gloss over it for brand positioning,” Shamrock said.

Still, as mixed martial arts makes its way into the new decade, Shamrock will be one of the guys who will play a big role in continuing to build the mainstream acceptance. Whether it is through announcing, the media, or inside the cage, Shamrock will be on the frontline for Strikeforce.

With all the changes that have come with developing the sport, Shamrock is very happy to have been around through the whole evolution. He believes he should be mentioned in the same breath as Gracie, Couture, Liddell, and his brother.

“I consider myself one of the true pioneers. For certain.”

So Floyd Mayweather is going to fight Manny Pacquiao? Awesome. Finally, there is a fight that the sports world and beyond could really get into.

As a displaced boxing fan, I was extremely excited by the prospects of the match-up. The two best boxers in the world were going to fight. In a world where people love to argue the merits of each expert’s “pound-for-pound lists”, the public unanimously views Pacquiao and Mayweather as the numbers one and two fighters respectively.

Their ranking at the top is no longer opinion. It is fact.

Plus, Mayweather is the unquestioned star of HBO’s 24/7 series. Seeing weeks of build-up for the fight would make the anticipation grow to levels never before seen. Every sports fan in America (and beyond) would have to be excited for the fight.

The match-up would have been the biggest fight since Mike Tyson defeated Michael Spinks on June 27, 1988. Boxing had a chance to deliver the biggest fight of the past three decades.

Then, we learned far too much about drug testing.

Immediately, the cynic in me thought one of two things was happening. The first was that Mayweather and Pacquiao were just trying to build interest in the fight. To really be arguing about drug testing is just illogical.

The second was that this fight truly has no chance of happening. One of the fighters does not want to face the other. Or maybe neither of them wants to fight. I do not care who the culprit is. To me, that does not matter. As a fan, the only thing I cared about was the fact the biggest fight boxing has to offer would not get made.

Unfortunately for the entire sports world, the second scenario was correct. The biggest fight boxing can make will not take place.

We can debate for hours why the fight will not happen. We can blame Mayweather for requesting blood tests. We can blame Pacquiao for refusing to take them. We can blame Bob Arum, Oscar De La Hoya, Floyd Mayweather Sr., or Richard Schaefer for allowing this to spiral out of control.

None of that really matters. The fight is over.

In a few months, Pacquiao will be facing Yuri Foreman, and Mayweather will be taking on Paulie Malignaggi. Both are completely useless match-ups to the sport. No one outside of the hardcore fans will really care about the results.

After finally being excited about a boxing match then having it ripped away, I hope both boxers lose. If Mayweather and Pacquiao both win, the bickering will all start over. Maybe next time, we’d have to hear about the size of the gloves or the location of the fight or some detail that never should make it to the public.

Instead of gaining boatloads of new fans, boxing turned them away as they were banging on the cabin door. Well done. Maybe the NFL can counter and cancel the Super Bowl. That would never happen.

Boxing just set itself back twenty-one years. At least we can still fondly think back to the excitement and anticipation of when Mike Tyson stood in the ring with Michael Spinks.

The fight did not deliver, but at least the sport did.