UFC 161 was supposed to be the platform for a rematch of one of the greatest fights of all time - Antonio Rogerio Nogueira vs. Mauricio "Shogun" Rua. Unfortunately, Lil Nog got hurt and Shogun was moved over to the first Fox Sports 1 card to meet Chael Sonnen in the main event. Nogueira spoke to Guilherme Cruz of MMA Fighting about that fight, and still expressed an interest in the rematch with Shogun while dissing Sonnen in the process. First, he gave his Shogun/Sonnen prediction:
"Sonnen may take him down twice, but he won’t be able to do that for five rounds," "Minotouro" told MMAFighting.com. "He will need to stand at some point of the fight and Shogun will tag him. I believe Shogun will knock him out."
When asked about a possible bout with Sonnen, Lil Nog didn't hold back on his thoughts about The American Gangster:
"That fight doesn’t interest me because I want to fight the best, and there are a lot of fighters that are better than him, including Shogun, Dan Henderson and Rashad Evans," he said. "Chael talks trash, he’s pure marketing. If we keep talking about him, that’s what he wants. He fought three times for the world title and got beat up. He tried to make his name when Anderson was fighting him injured, and we all saw what happened in the second fight."
He also said he's close to getting back to full speed in training and wants the Shogun fight:
"I want to fight again this year, absolutely," said Nogueira. "(Shogun) is good fight, a good option for me. I’m a lot better now, back to boxing training already. I have trained jiu-jitsu last Saturday and it was a little painful, but I believe I’ll be ready to train hard in a month."
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