News
13/07/09 - Nogueira not surprised by Lesnar-Mir result
Rodrigo Nogueira was not surprised about the result of the heavyweight clash between Brock Lesnar and Frank Mir at UFC 100 on Saturday. He said Frank Mir is not a man who can take punches and Lesnar has the ability to control the opponent on the ground to hit him over the guard.
The experienced Brazilian fighter also said that only an old-school athlete used to taking hits can face off with Lesnar, drawing comparisons with his own performance against Bob ‘The Beast’ Sapp in Pride FC.
“Mir owns the technique to overcome the brutal power of Lesnar but he had to tolerate the punches and he didn’t have a proper gameplan specific for Brock,” Nogueira commented after watching the fight. “Mir couldn’t handle that flurry of hard blows so early while his adversary was still full of gas and force.”
Nogueira 31-5-1, 1 NC) also commented on fellow Brazilian Thiago Alves’ peformance in his challenge for Georges St. Pierre’s welterweight title.
“He had all the tools to win the combat but made a mistake,” he sighed. “You can’t go forward at St-Pierre and leave openings that allowed him to be taken down that easily.”
Wrestling is something close to Nogueira’s mind at the moment. He faces former UFC heavyweight champion Randy Couture at UFC 102 on August 29th and is preparing for his opponent’s wrestling skills. He says he has “been training intensively with Brazilian and American wrestlers to impose my strategy in the day of the fight”.
Nogueira is the former PRIDE FC heavyweight champion and also held the UFC interim heavyweight title before losing it to Frank Mir earlier this year. He is dogged by rumours of ill-health - and notorious for taking damage in the early rounds of his fights - but says he is determined to take a run at the UFC heavyweight belt.
The Brazilian Ninja
(FO Staff Brasil)
thebrazilianninja@gmail.com
Attachments:
- There are no attachments for this article
