Brazilians Sweep Rio Main Events
The three big name Brazilians on the card for the UFC’s first trip to Brazil in more than a decade all made easy work of their opponents. Although the card may not have been designed for a sweep, that’s pretty much how it turned out.
After mainly toying with Yushin Okami in the first round of their 185 pound title fight (standard practice for Anderson Silva), the Spider turned up the heat and set up the finish using psyche-out tactics he has often used in the past.
Accordingly, Silva dropped his hands very low in order to lure Okami into a false sense of security (as he once did to an unsuspecting Forrest Griffin), and he dropped Okami with a single jab seemingly out of nowhere.
Albeit, this was no ordinary jab. A very short right jab from Silva landed very awkwardly but flush on the right temple of Okami. That’s right, the right temple. You have to see this to understand how unusual a one punch knockdown this was.
A right hand (while fighters are squared off) doesn’t often land on the opposite side temple of the opponent. It didn’t help matters that Okami turned his head into the punch at precisely the wrong moment and angle.
Later in the second round Silva finished the job with a very short right hook that caught Okami flush on the nose. From that moment it seemed that all the fight was out of Yushin Okami.
Actually, it is tough to figure out how Okami was dropped so emphatically by this right hook, unless he was still badly hurt from the earlier knockdown. It didn’t seem to be a devastating punch. Then again, it is a hook thrown by Anderson Silva, the man that possesses the greatest striking prowess in the history of MMA.
There was very little work left to do as Okami did little more than cover up after he fell. Silva graciously through the minimum number of finishing strikes as was necessary until Herb Dean waved it off.
Once again Anderson Silva proved that there is really no opponent worth mentioning for him at 185 pounds other than 3 glaringly obvious re-matches: Dan Henderson, Chael Sonnen and after one more win, Vitor Belfort.
The other big stories tonight involved the second and third leg of the Brazilian sweep: Shogun Rua’s destruction of Forrest Griffin, and an incredible resurgence fight for the legendary Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira.
The end for Griffin also came off of an unusually landed right hand. In this case it appeared that a very powerful right hook from Rua landed flush on the side of the neck of Griffin, right where the carotid artery resides. We don’t often see a fight begin to end in this fashion, but it is a wonder that we don’t see it more often.
Most self defense styles and traditional Martial Arts specifically teach that area of an attacker’s neck as a prime target, and for exactly the reasons we witnessed in Rua’s victory.
While Rua was almost certainly aiming for the temple with this shot, the spot it landed on did just as well as the head would have, as this flush shot to the artery can really wobble an opponent and make him extremely vulnerable for several seconds with very limited motor skills.
That’s a dreadful situation to be in against Shogun, a former Pride and UFC Champ known specifically to have some of the best killer instincts in the sport’s history. Shogun made short work of Griffin from this point, finishing him with several rapid fire shots on the ground, particularly a devastating hammer fist that was essentially game over for Griffin.
My favorite moment of the night (and it was one of the brightest nights for the UFC in 2011) was the spectacular revival of Minotauro Nogueria on his home turf.
Nogueira is the singular legendary heavyweight in the history of cage-fighters from Brazil. Big Nog as his fans refer to him, had been warning the public that he was feeling healthy for the first time in many years.
That refrain is not uncommon though amongst pro MMA fighters, so you never know how true it is, or whether or not a coinciding lay-off will counteract the newfound good health. In the case of Big Nog, he was apparently deadly serious about how good he felt. Nog absorbed a few heavy shots from an extremely talented and large up-and-coming striker named Brendan Schaub.
Despite Nog’s legendary status, Schaub was favored in this one, as many devout MMA followers simply thought Nogueira had seen too many wars, taken too much damage, especially of late. Minotauro Nogueira is famous for his ability to take a punch and for several of the greatest in-fight comebacks in cage-fighting history.
In short, Minotauro’s jaw is a huge part of his legend. Only recently had opponents been able to get at Nogueira’s chin in a permanent sense. Going up against an extremely heavy hitting and athletic Schaub, there was good reason to wonder how Minotauro’s chin would hold up in this one.
Had Nog’s chin really been brought past the point of no return in recent years? The question was answered when Schaub did clip Nogueuira pretty good early in the fight, at one point seeming to significantly wobble Big Nog.
But the 35 year old living legend and Brazilian national hero shook off the damage like the Nog of old and kept moving forward. Nogueira kept pressing Schaub, and landed some hard shots of his own to the head. Despite being known for possessing the greatest BJJ skills of any heavyweight to ever fight in the cage, Big Nog’s significant improvement in his stand-up game over the last several years carried the night for him.
Schaub felt the sting and power in Minotauro’s hands and dropped onto his face, where an incredibly sportsman-like (as always) Minotauro threw the bare minimum needed to finish the young heavyweight (whom he obviously has great respect for). Nogueira’s homecoming was the highlight of the Rio card for me, for many reasons.
Anyone that has been following the sport for 10 years or more understands that Nog is the essence of the true MMA warrior. This guy is a blue collar, salt of the earth, fighter’s fighter. Never one to begin a war of words or get dragged into one, and as gracious and soft spoken a killer as has ever stepped foot in a cage, Nogueira is a special fighter… one that the UFC would do well to spotlight more.
Minotauro is a throwback, a fighter that puts no faith in trash talk, and only looks to challenge himself at every turn and to get up off the mat if he goes down… every time until his last breath. Truly one of my favorite fighters, from a similar mold as Couture and Chris Lytle (whom I also recently lauded as a favorite for similar reasons). Just shut up and fight kids. It’s as simple as that.
Nogueira was blessed with the opportunity to fight in front of his hometown for first time in many, many years. It was clearly a moment for him that was a lifetime highlight. This was emotional for Minotauro and it was simply one of the more inspiring moments in the UFC this year.
As I said earlier, Nogueira clearly had a deep respect for Schaub and no doubt sees him as the future of the sport, but for right now, as he said emphatically in the cage after the fight ended – “I’m back!” Indeed he is. “The Bull” looked younger tonight at 35 than he has in 5 years.
~ J. Wise / Guerrilla Fight – GuerrilaFighter@gmail.com
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