Antonio Rogerio Nogueira plans to ‘steal the show’ in trilogy fight against Shogun Rua
Antonio Rogerio Nogueira has said win or lose on Saturday night, he will be retiring from MMA.
The 44-year-old Brazilian legend is set to be in the co-main event of UFC Fight Island 3 where he will be having his trilogy fight against Shogun Rua. The two first fought in 2005 in PRIDE where it was Rua who won by decision. They then rematched in 2-15 at UFC 190 where once again Rua won by decision.
Now, in the trilogy bout, Lil Nog is expecting a very entertaining scrap and plans on stealing the show on Saturday night.
“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 talks about this fight,” Nogueira said at media day. “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.”
Antonio Rogerio Nogueira has not fought since he suffered a KO loss to Ryan Spann at UFC 237. Since then, he has been on the sidelines waiting to have his retirement fight. Although Lil Nog is over 40, he is 2-2 in his last four with TKO win over Sam Alvey and Patrick Cummins.
So, the power of Lil Nog is still there and he hopes he can go out with a win. But, he makes it clear, this is the final fight of his legendary career.
“My plan is to make a good fight, step-by-step. But I think it’s a good time to stop now. I think it’s going to be the last one,” he said.
There is no doubt a lot of fans will be tuning in to see Nogueira’s final fight of his MMA career. He will be a surefire Hall of Famer and a Brazilian MMA legend when it is all said and done.
