By Eduardo Ferreira

Photo Debora Serrano

Former UFC and Pride heavyweight champion Pride and UFC, Rodrigo “Minotauro” Nogueira will have the chance for revenging his first loss by knockout on UFC 119, when he will face Frank Mir, who defeated him at the end of 2008.

On his own website, Minotauro showed himself excited with the fact he could remember of the golden days on Pride along with his brother. “I’m very glad for having the opportunity to fight on the same day as my brother Rogério. It reminds us our good old days on Pride”, said Rodrigo, optimistic.

“I hope this bout will be better than the first. I’ll train hard, like always, Jiu-Jitsu, boxing and my conditioning. I’m 100%, without any injury. I’ll be very well prepared for this combat. I’m ready to fight MMA, I’m improving all my skills. Of course that Mir has his own qualities and deserves my respect. But this time things will be different”, promises.

On an exclusive chat with TATAME, the heavyweight commented the statements of Chael Sonnen, who called him a “punching bag”, and analyzed the win of Fabricio Werdum over Fedor Emelianenko, besides commenting on the last win of his brother, Rogério Minotouro, on UFC and revealing his wish to see his brother fighting Maurício Shogun.

Chael Sonnen is saying a lot of things in the attempt to promote his bout against Anderson Silva, and called you a “punching bag”… What do you think of it?

Man, I’ll tell you I don’t know who he is. For me, he doesn’t change anything, he was submitted by Paulo (Filho), a fight on which Paulo was not fine, was in depression and coming from a lot of problems, and he was not at his best and, even though, doing the worst MMA fight I’ve ever seen, he beat the guy. I don’t know who he is, what I know is that the only bout he did I watched was the only good one he did on his life, which was this last one. I don’t have anything to say about him, I’m not going to stand here and speak bad things about him because I don’t know him. I believe he has to fight a lit. For him to become a punching bag or an outstanding fighter, he’ll have to show up. He’ll have to fight with many guys, I believe he’ll take a beating a lot, too bad that he won't lose for me. I’d like to do it, but he’ll have his time.

What did you think of Rogério’s win over Jason Brilz?

Rogério is on his own way, he had a tough fight, the boy is to be congratulated, he made it harder on Rogério. Rogério won the first and the third round, the boy won the second, so it was a fight on which Rogério could see the guy’s good side, he had a better Wrestling than Rogério, but Rogério also showed he has a heavy hand, showed this side of him too, but the fight wasn’t very exciting. Rogério is one step away from the belt, he’s the best fighter… There’s Rogério and Shogun. The best fight of 2005, one of the best in all decade, it was a bout that happened in Japan and I believe United States deserves to watch it too.

Do you think Maurício Shogun will beat Rashad Evans in case this bout is confirmed?

I believe he’ll beat Rashad for his larger experience, he’s the champion, he has a more complete game, his trade of punches is better, his ground game is also better than Rashad’s. Rashad is a dangerous guy, a super athlete of Wrestling, but Shogun has a more dangerous ground game.

What do you bet for this fight?

I’d bet that Shogun will beat Rashad by knockout.

And about the bout between Junior Cigano and Roy Nelson, how do you think this combat will be like?

It’s on the journey to the belt dispute. I believe Cigano will beat Roy Nelson and the one who will win is the one with the belt (laughs).

What did you think of this historical win of Fabrício Werdum over Fedor Emelianenko on Strikeforce?

It was pure Jiu-Jitsu, he got a triangle on the right moment and fit it well, he was well trained, on a good shape. I didn’t train with Werdum for this fight because I was training with King Mo on the United States, I was helping him on his trainings, but I’ve heard he had good sparring, everybody told he would win this fight, everybody believed in him. He really went there, did what he planned to do, used his Jiu-Jitsu, submitted, he is indeed one of the tops of Jiu-Jitsu and Fedor ended but being a little naïve and not believing on that triangle, which is a very dangerous position when it comes to Werdum, and he also got that arm, but the guy thought he would be there on that half guard hitting him, inside the triangle, Werdum finished the fight. He got the guy’s arm really tight, Fedor was escaping   from the triangle, but he must be under a lot of pain on his arm right now.

Do you think he underestimated Werdum?

He underestimates Werdum’s Jiu-Jitsu. He started trading some punches, was better on this part, but, in fact, Werdum’s Jiu-Jitsu is not easy to take and he did a great job and used Jiu-Jitsu to win on MMA.