Rodrigo “Minotauro” Nogueira’s December rematch with Frank Mir at UFC 140 won’t be an easy outing for either of them. At least those are the thoughts of Mir himself, the first of two fighters ever to knock the Brazilian out, way back at UFC 98, in 2008.
“Nogueira is still a tough guy. A lot of people see this fight from opposing views, extremes. They either think I landed a lucky punch in the first fight or they think Nogueira should retire. I seem him as being extremely motivated, an athlete who wants revenge, so I’m not going to overlook him one bit,” Mir said on website MMAInterviews.
“He’s obviously a legitimate submission specialist. He’ll be dangerous on the ground till he’s 80. But I think I have a big advantage over him standing, especially because of my athleticism. It would be advantageous to me to keep it standing, I’d be at lesser risk there than on the ground,” he said, overlooking Minotauro’s latest win: a first round knockout over Brendan Schaub at UFC Rio.
The UFC 140 card will also feature Minotauro’s twin brother, Rogério Minotouro, taking on Tito Ortiz and 205-lb champion Jon Jones’s fourth fight of 2011, against challenger Lyoto Machida.
