After surviving a horrific childhood accident that saw him get run over by a truck, it’s hard to count Antonio Rodrigo ‘Minotauro’ Nogueira out of anything, let alone a mixed martial arts fight. So after he took a pounding from Tim Sylvia for ten minutes of their bout tonight at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, it wasn’t a sign to make your way for the exit; he was just getting warmed up, and in the third round, Nogueira, the comeback kid of MMA, finally found the opening he needed and he submitted Sylvia to win the interim UFC Heavyweight Championship.
“He’s a true heavyweight, a giant,” said Nogueira, who becomes the first man in history to hold the UFC and PRIDE heavyweight championship belts. “I got many hard punches in this fight and I was waiting for a good opportunity to put him on the ground.”
Sylvia (26-4) was sharp in the early stages of the first round, stalking his opponent and landing with a couple of strong right hands before Nogueira (31-4-1) pulled guard. The action stalled on the ground and Sylvia made his way back to his feet and got back to the business of trying to find a home for his right. With under three minutes left, he set it up perfectly with a left hook before the right hand came over the top and dropped the Brazilian. Nogueira survived the ensuing onslaught, but once the fight rose again his legs had lost some spring and he was showing the scars of battle on his face. As the final minute rolled around though, Nogueira started to land with his own strikes and even scored a takedown just before the bell.
Nogueira looked to pick up where he left off at the end of the first by securing a takedown in the second, but Sylvia fought the attempt off and picked at his foe with strikes from long range that scored with frightening regularity. Nogueira continued to battle, as is his custom, but Sylvia’s takedown defense was stellar, and left ‘Minotauro’ with few options other than standing and trading with the much larger man.
Up two rounds, Sylvia kept to the game plan in round three, drilling Nogueira with right hand leads and counters. Nogueira finally got his takedown though, and after sweeping Sylvia, he sunk in a guillotine choke and forced the tap out at the 1:28 mark.
“It’s Minotauro Nogueira,” said Sylvia, a two-time UFC heavyweight champion. “Every fight he’s in he gets his ass kicked for the first ten minutes, you get comfortable fighting him, and the next thing you know, he catches you. The guy’s a legend in this sport.”
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