Tweet
The boost that Brock Lesnar failed to give the Ultimate Fighting Championship's troubled heavyweight division Saturday was instead provided by new interim heavyweight champion Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira.
Nogueira rallied from two-plus rounds of a stand-up beating at the hands of former two-time champion Tim Sylvia by taking the fight to the ground and applying a guillotine chokehold that made Sylvia tap out 1:28 into the third round in Las Vegas.
"Every fight he's in, he gets his [rear] kicked for 10 minutes, you start getting comfortable, and the next thing you know he catches you," Sylvia said afterward.
The 31-year-old Nogueira (31-4-1) became the first man to claim heavyweight belts in UFC and Japan's PRIDE Fighting Championships, which the UFC purchased last year. Nogueira won the PRIDE title in 2001, surrendering it to Fedor Emelianenko two years later.
"He's a giant," Nogueira said of Sylvia. "I got caught with heavy shots in this fight. Finally, when I got him to the ground, I got him very tight."
Although the UFC and resigned heavyweight champion Randy Couture are split by a lawsuit, Nogueira called out 44-year-old Couture to return after winning.
"If Couture can come back to the UFC, I'd love to fight him," Nogueira said. "Please come back to the UFC."
Lesnar certainly didn't emerge as the heir apparent to Couture.
The former World Wrestling Entertainment champion is trying to parlay the wrestling skills he built while winning a 2000 NCAA title into a mixed martial arts career.
His first UFC assignment, against the organization's former heavyweight champion Frank Mir, was a tough one, although Lesnar got the best of the early action. He immediately dropped Mir and rained punches on his head before referee Steve Mazzagatti stopped the bout briefly to warn Lesnar about illegal blows to the back of the head.
Another right hand felled Mir, and Lesnar bloodied Mir's forehead with right tomahawk punches and elbows.
Yet, Mir, a jiu-jitsu black belt, grabbed Lesnar's right leg, turned him and forced him the to tap out by twisting Lesnar's leg in a decisive kneebar 1:30 into the first round.
"I tried his arms, but look at 'em," Mir said afterward. "I knew his legs were a little leaner. It feels spectacular. . . . Brock Lesnar was dropping elbows on my head."
With famed pro wrestlers Steve "Stone Cold" Austin, The Undertaker and Kurt Angle in attendance, Lesnar said after the defeat that he would go "back to the drawing board," and planned to fight in the UFC again.
"I came out trying to pressure Frank, I was trying to get a bunch of shots in," Lesnar said. "But I left my leg there. He got me. Tonight, he was the better fighter."
Sylvia (26-4) also appeared better than Nogueira for most of their main event, wobbling the PRIDE refugee with a left hook-right combination early in the first, and leaning on his large reach and height advantage to stagger Nogueira again in the second. Nogueira took the fight to the mat more than a minute into the third, when his dynamic Brazilian jiu-jitsu skills decided the outcome.
Source: LA Times
Nogueira rallied from two-plus rounds of a stand-up beating at the hands of former two-time champion Tim Sylvia by taking the fight to the ground and applying a guillotine chokehold that made Sylvia tap out 1:28 into the third round in Las Vegas.
"Every fight he's in, he gets his [rear] kicked for 10 minutes, you start getting comfortable, and the next thing you know he catches you," Sylvia said afterward.
The 31-year-old Nogueira (31-4-1) became the first man to claim heavyweight belts in UFC and Japan's PRIDE Fighting Championships, which the UFC purchased last year. Nogueira won the PRIDE title in 2001, surrendering it to Fedor Emelianenko two years later.
"He's a giant," Nogueira said of Sylvia. "I got caught with heavy shots in this fight. Finally, when I got him to the ground, I got him very tight."
Although the UFC and resigned heavyweight champion Randy Couture are split by a lawsuit, Nogueira called out 44-year-old Couture to return after winning.
"If Couture can come back to the UFC, I'd love to fight him," Nogueira said. "Please come back to the UFC."
Lesnar certainly didn't emerge as the heir apparent to Couture.
The former World Wrestling Entertainment champion is trying to parlay the wrestling skills he built while winning a 2000 NCAA title into a mixed martial arts career.
His first UFC assignment, against the organization's former heavyweight champion Frank Mir, was a tough one, although Lesnar got the best of the early action. He immediately dropped Mir and rained punches on his head before referee Steve Mazzagatti stopped the bout briefly to warn Lesnar about illegal blows to the back of the head.
Another right hand felled Mir, and Lesnar bloodied Mir's forehead with right tomahawk punches and elbows.
Yet, Mir, a jiu-jitsu black belt, grabbed Lesnar's right leg, turned him and forced him the to tap out by twisting Lesnar's leg in a decisive kneebar 1:30 into the first round.
"I tried his arms, but look at 'em," Mir said afterward. "I knew his legs were a little leaner. It feels spectacular. . . . Brock Lesnar was dropping elbows on my head."
With famed pro wrestlers Steve "Stone Cold" Austin, The Undertaker and Kurt Angle in attendance, Lesnar said after the defeat that he would go "back to the drawing board," and planned to fight in the UFC again.
"I came out trying to pressure Frank, I was trying to get a bunch of shots in," Lesnar said. "But I left my leg there. He got me. Tonight, he was the better fighter."
Sylvia (26-4) also appeared better than Nogueira for most of their main event, wobbling the PRIDE refugee with a left hook-right combination early in the first, and leaning on his large reach and height advantage to stagger Nogueira again in the second. Nogueira took the fight to the mat more than a minute into the third, when his dynamic Brazilian jiu-jitsu skills decided the outcome.
Source: LA Times