Fight Hype caught up with Ed Soares, the manager of Black House fighter's Antonio Rodrigo Noguiera and Junior Dos Santos. Nogueira will be facing Randy Couture at the main event of UFC 102, and he says that Big Nog is in the best shape he's ever seen him:

I'll tell you, Nogueira is feeling great. He's probably in the best shape that I've ever seen him in since I've been managing him. This is the best I've ever seen Nogueira. He's focused, he's had a great training camp and he's been training really hard. He's trimmed up a little bit. He's probably 8 to 10 pounds lighter than he was before. He's quicker and moving well. He was pretty much injury free throughout this whole training camp. We're expecting to see the best Nogueira that the UFC has ever seen.

He also talked about Junior Dos Santos' fight against Mirko Cro Cop on UFC 103:

Cro Cop is no joke. Everyone has seen the highlight reel knockouts that he has. He's a very dangerous guy, but we believe 100% in all of our fighters and especially Junior Dos Santos. It's not a matter of if he's going to be a champion, it's just a matter of when. He's definitely a contender and I think on September 19th, we will get a chance to see what Junior is made of. He's going to go and fight Cro Cop and I believe he's going to beat Cro Cop!

There were rumors floating that Nog has looked really bad in camp, but if what Ed says is true and that this is indeed the best Nogueira that we have yet to see in the UFC, then the fans will surely be in for a treat.

Nogueira's protoge, Junior Dos Santos, is one of the UFC's fastest rising stars, and a win over Cro Cop would surely do wonders for his career. His fight against Mirko Cro Cop is one of the UFC 103 fights that a lot of fans are looking forward to cause either way, two knockout artists going head to head, would definitely bring the fireworks.

UFC 102: Couture vs. Nogueira coverage