He dominated the entire fight with Heath Herring in the stand up department and only lost momentum during the head kick which would have KO'd practically any mortal.
Then, he recovered and went on to dominate the further 10 minutes of the fight.
Where did he look bad in the fight besides eating one in the face?
Is everybody so brainwashed by the non-success of the majority of Pride fighters that they are now counting Nog out due to the shortcomings of Cro Cop, Shogun, etc.?
Honestly, Nogueira trains at Blackhouse with Machida and Anderson Silva who are both on fire right now. Nogueira does not equal Cro Cop. Believe it or not, a fighter can have success in an org and it's up to him, ultimately.
All I want to know, is why is it that where you went, a year ago people would say Nog by complete domination or submission in the 1st, but now that the rest of Pride appears lackluster minus Rampage, Anderson Silva, Gono, Werdum, etc. that Nogueira is suddenly going to lose to Sylvia.
Please, I beg all of you to blow this topic back in my face when Tim beats him (he won't).
I'm rooting for him all the way. But that old cliche of "styles make fights" is still relevant, and I sadly think Tim has the style to beat him. I dont see anyone "counting" Nog out though.
I think it's a combo of pride guy failures, Nog looking shakey and people realizing Tim is not a big stiff, he has the skills and size to give anyone trouble. Against Munson he proved he not an automatic out even when taken down. I think Nog finds a way to win but wouldn't be shocked if Tim wins.
I've thought for around the past two and half years that Nog's best days were certainly behind him- and I've said so.
I think he's had a steady decline. Too many wars. Too many severe injuries. He's slowed but it is a testament to his skills that he's compensated and can still hang in there, but my gut tells me its just a matter of time before a bad streak hits.
I hear this a lot, but what were they? Piledriver from Sapp, a bunch of hits from Crocop, and a bunch of hits from Fedor in their first fight. Really nothing plenty of other fighters haven't taken (Randleman's suplex on Fedor was worse than the Sapp piledriver, even).
Nog is younger than Tim Sylvia and like a year older than Vera. Younger than Chuck, younger than Silva (who took a way worse beating from Crocop, ending in KO, then another KO from Dan, and another beating from Chuck all in a row).
He's had major surgeries on the elbows in both arms in 2005. Luckily his first two fights in 06 were easy but he was hardly 100% when he had three tough fights within a few months to end the year. in addition I recall a leg and wrist injury, of course the eye, and hey, just look at his fights, he's had some tough ones.
I didn't think many people were gonna jump off the Nog bandwagon caus eof what happene din the last Herring fight...but then i heard Dana with a B.S. comment out of left field, I'm paraphrasing it, but it came off like this:
"Well it turns out that Noguiera might have been exploited in his last fight after he got kicked to the head by herring, his chin may be suspect. We might see sylvia now go for that high kick ..."
I'm not a fan of Nogs or sylvia really, but if you get kicked to the head like Nog did against Herring, pretty much anyone in the UFC would go down if it connected. It was a flush kick, and its pretty impressive that he recovered enough to survive the round. Maybe Dana was just trying to throw something out like its a hole in Nog's game, but it was stupid nonetheless.