5 legends of MMA who joined the UFC too late

#5 Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira

Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira could've dominated the UFC in his prime

Okay, so Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira had a couple of really high points during his UFC tenure, most notably his win over Tim Sylvia – a victory that won him the Interim UFC Heavyweight title – and a stone-cold classic fight against Randy Couture, but for the most part, the former PRIDE Heavyweight champion’s run in the Octagon was disappointing – and the Nogueira we saw in the UFC was a far cry from the fighter who’d dominated for so long in Japan.

Nogueira rose to fame in Japan in the RINGS promotion in the early 2000’s, losing just 1 of his first 13 fights before moving into PRIDE in 2001. He quickly began winning there too, demonstrating submission skills unheard of in the Heavyweight division at the time, and became recognised as the best Heavyweight on the planet when he submitted former UFC champion and PRIDE Grand Prix winner Mark Coleman.

A win over Heath Herring gave ‘Minotauro’ the PRIDE Heavyweight title, and he continued to dominate his opponents until running into the phenomenal Fedor Emelianenko in 2003. Even after his loss to the Russian, Nogueira seemed capable of beating everyone else – and he did just that, with his two defeats to Fedor being his only losses from 2003 to 2006.

By late 2006, though, it was clear that the Brazilian was beginning to slow down a little. Although he was just 30 years old, he’d taken more cumulative damage in his PRIDE tenure than almost any other fighter, and although his durability was legendary, questions began to be asked over how long he could continue.

Nogueira entered into the UFC in 2007 following the promotion’s purchase of PRIDE, and despite looking physically worse than he’d done before, it seemed the durability was still intact – he weathered nasty storms from Herring and Sylvia before coming back to beat both men.

That durability was shattered in his next fight though, as heavy underdog Frank Mir knocked him out in the second round – the first time ‘Minotauro’ had ever been finished in nearly 40 fights. And from there – with his aura of invincibility gone – Nogueira was only able to win a further 3 UFC fights, while losing 5, 4 of which saw him finished in violent fashion by either TKO or submission.

By the time of his retirement in 2015 Nogueira simply looked like an old man in the Octagon, something truly upsetting to watch for any MMA fan who’d followed him since his PRIDE days. Had he joined the UFC in the early 2000’s, there can be no doubt that the Brazilian would’ve dominated the Heavyweight division, but unfortunately, the UFC’s rise came at just the wrong time for him.