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Minotauro's Never-Ending Quest Continues in Japan! Since the sport of NHB began, perhaps no other champion has faced and defeated the level of competition that Rodrigo "Minotauro" Nogueira has to date. Win after win, submission after submission the Brazilian Top Team member gained the trust of NHB fans worldwide and slowly erased any doubts of his tremendous skills and talent, winning numerous fans in the process. Nogueira is surely the closest thing of a unanimity you can find in NHB. After knocking out Sanae Kikuta in the UFO show, and submitting the giant Bob Sapp in Shockwave less than a month after that in one of the most epic NHB fights of all time, Minotauro is once again taking his magic to Japan to face yet another giant -- Dutch fighter Semmy Schilt. With an absurdly long reach and some serious striking skills, Schilt is a fighter not to be taken lightly; however, few give him a chance against the Brazilian Champion, who will likely have yet another challenge in December against the winner of Heath Herring vs. Emelianenko Fedor bout. If the submission wizard will be able to work his trickery with the Dutch giant and continue his quest in Japan in the triumphant way he has been doing so far only time will tell, but whenever Minotauro steps in the ring the heat is guaranteed, so Full Contact Fighter bows to the Brazilian sorcerer and welcomes PRIDE 23 in all its excitement! 
FCF: Your last fight was a true battle against the giant Bob Sapp at Shockwave! What was going on in your head during the fight feeling all the weight of that monster?Mino: I was sure he would get tired during that fight. I was like waiting for the right time once he would get tired, and doing my strategy. There were times where I would stay a bit quiet during the fight, with him hitting me while I would try to defend, but I didn't want to exchange a lot of strength with him cause I knew if I would do it things would get tough. I needed to wait for him to get tired and after he would get tired it would be an even fight. If he wouldn't get tired there would be now way for me to get him in a submission. In the beginning of the fight I tried for some submissions but he would power his way out of them pretty quick. So when he started to get tired I started to press the fight more, that was my strategy. To fight the first round only to make him tired, and to try and finish the fight on the second or on the third round. He entered the second round tired, on my hands [Laughs] FCF: Did you ever think you weren't going to be able to win during the fight? Mino: No, not at all. Ever since I left Brazil for the fight I knew it was going to be tough. I saw the tapes of his fights, like his fight against Tamura, and Tamura is a relatively tough guy. He isn't a top-notch fighter but he is a good striker that can take some punches, and he took a punch from Bob Sapp and went down with like 15 seconds in the fight [Laughs] So I thought "Man! I better be ready" You can even see that he [Sapp] is proving his value; he beat Abdil and Hoost in K-1 already. FCF: When did you feel you had the fight turning into your favor? Mino: When the first round was over and I went to start the second round I felt I could win the fight. I also don't know exactly what happened but during the first round I wasn't being able to see things well, because they used Vaseline or something like it above my eye, and during the fight this was preventing me from seeing things well. But on the break before the second round Luis Alves wiped it in the corner and I could see well on the second round. When I felt Sapp breathing harder than in the first round I thought, "Now I can change things up a bit" FCF: Sapp has been experiencing some success in K-1, and you risked some exchanges with him. What did you think of trading strikes with him? Mino: I thought he is very strong standing up but I believe I did better in our exchanges. I was able to hit him with some good combos and connect with some punches, use some movement. I couldn't stop in front of him; this was the main thing as far as stand up is concerned. I think people pay a price for stopping in front of him. There's no guard that can hold that guy's punch [Laughs] you can't stop and raise your arms trusting that your guard will hold that punch, cause once he hits you he will connect to your face with your arms on the way as well. So I would hit him, move a lot, hit him again, fake a takedown then hit him some more, always changing the strategy. You can't go to tread strikes with him like crazy! It would be the same thing of getting your head down and running to a wall with your head [Laughs] you have to go with patience, getting one piece at a time. It's a strategy fight. When the fight was about to start everybody was telling me not to go for a double leg, but once the fight started I went for it cause for me to trade strikes with him all rested it would be worst! So I tried the takedown and he slammed me, but he spent some energy doing so and when he got up again he was already breathing harder, so it's a strategy fight. FCF: After this historical bout people start commenting about a re-match! What did you think of those comments so soon after your win? Mino: I think the K-1 guys were the ones pressing a re-match, cause they couldn't accept that I beat their hope of defeating the best NHB fighters out there. I beat their guy and proved that I'm still the best heavyweight in NHB, and Bob Sapp was probably their biggest hope of beating me. Man, he just lost to me. I beat him! There's nothing else to be done about it now. What gets me wondering is that in NHB the best fighters usually don't fight each other. Did you ever see Heath Herring facing Coleman for instance? They don't fight against each other; I'm the only fighter facing all the tough ones! They want to put all the big guys against me, but they won't fight one another. They have to fight one another and then I'll fight the best of them all. A lot of people are challenging me to fight, like Ricco Rodriguez now, man they have a lot of people they still have to face in their careers, like Heath Herring, Mark Coleman, Bob Sapp and others! They have to fight one another; those would all be great fights for the public. FCF: Do you believe fighters that heavy should be fighting in another weight division? Mino: They should be fighting in another weight division. In the same way Bob Sapp appeared on the scene, with time others as heavy as him will appear. I heard there's another guy from the NFL who is going to do NHB. A friend of mine even asked me "Man, will the future of NHB be the mutants now?" [Laughs] I think there should be, and I'm not talking about Bob Sapp, some control cause there is a lot of guys taking hormones. I never took anything like it in my life. I'm not talking about any fighters in specific, but I can do any test before a fight cause I never took anything! Not even Winstrol, not anything! I think there should be better steroid tests. I'm a normal guy and I have to face someone who is totally different from me, full of hormones and stuff like that. FCF: Could you feel a big difference of weight fighting Bob Sapp in relation to your other fights? Mino: A big difference, really big difference. To use my legs, to do a position… FCF: What about that triangle you tried a couple of times during the fight, did you think you would be able to close that triangle on him? Mino: Man, I think I could've closed it! It almost got him. There was a time where he escaped a triangle, and I'm going to tell you that he didn't escape it with power, he escape it with technique. In the last one he slammed me in the ground, and I went for the triangle but he immediately escaped with technique. If he hasn't trained for it he wouldn't come out. He is a smart guy! He is not just about power. He is intelligent! He will give a lot of guys lots of trouble in the future. But I'm sure I could've closed that triangle. FCF: When you were finally thinking about taking some rest, there appeared the invitation to fight Semmy Schilt! Did this invitation surprise you? Mino: Man! I was already training, I wasn't thinking about resting [Laughs] my vacation will only happen after the Inoki show in the end of the year. What happened was that I was expecting to fight him but PRIDE called me saying they didn't have a main event for December so they would use me as the main event for December, so I agreed with it. But they changed it right before PRIDE 23 and thank God I didn't stop training and I was ready. After the Bob Sapp fight I spent like 20 days in Japan on vacation taking care of some projects, like a clothing line I'm working on, but as soon as I finished my business there I got back to Brazil and resumed my training! I'm in shape; you'll see me in shape in Japan. FCF: What do you think of Schilt as a fighter, and do you think it's safe to risk some strike trading with someone with that reach? Mino: There's not even a way to think about trading with him in long distance, but maybe we can try something in the short range [Laughs] but my game will probably be to try to take him to the ground, but if I'm able to trade I'll trade. If he gives me an opportunity I'll trade a bit. As for him as a fighter, I saw his fight against Fedor and he improved on the ground. He is not good on the ground, but he got better. He defends himself well on the ground, however he doesn't have attacks on the ground. He gives some positions on the ground, cause his legs are very big and he didn't learn how to use the guard properly yet. But I heard he has been training ground in Holland. His strongest point is his front kick and his jab, one he gets in to close distance he uses his knees, but he has some great cardio Eduardo. He surely has a great cardio. You can't stop in front of him, you have to always move and I think I'm going to impose my game. I can't stay in mid distance with him, I have to either be out of his range, or get into close distance. FCF: How was your preparation for this fight? Did you do anything different? Mino: My preparation is basically always the same. I emphasized a bit more on the takedowns this time; I also trained a lot of Boxing. We got a new sparring now called "Drago" who is a Brazilian Boxing champion and he is now training with us at the Brazilian Top Team. We're looking to take him to fight in K-1 soon. He helped me a lot during the last four weeks in my Boxing training. I also trained a lot with Darrel Gohlar on the takedowns, and my ground training was the same as always with the BTT, and I also did a lot of Muay Thai training with Luis Alves. I'm prepared for everything. I also did a lot of physical training for this fight. This time I can tell you that I'm with a great cardio, and I think I'm a bit bigger now. I gained 2kg, I was weighing 104kg previously and now I'm weighing 106Kg with the same body fat percentage. So I heard he put some weight on, but so did I [Laughs] let's see what happens. FCF: As always, it's tough to say anything in advance, but how do you see this fight unfolding? Mino: I think the fight will end on the ground. He is big and will try his things, but once we get to the ground I'll do my best to not let him up again. Once on the ground I'll look for a submission, you can be sure about it. I can't say what I'll try, but I'll try to submit him. FCF: You spent a lot of time traveling to Japan and Europe. Were you starting to miss Brazil during all this time away? Mino: When I'm traveling around the world I'm usually doing business and rarely just visiting places, so I'm always busy. After a fight is always good to take some rest and go on vacation. Last time I went to France, so I could "go for a little walk" around the globe and distract myself a bit [Laughs] FCF: You start to miss the county because of being away from your wife or from the Brazilian food? [Laughs] Mino: Because of my wife, or course Eduardo… [Laughs] FCF: What are your plans for after this fight? Will you finally go out on vacation? Mino: I think I'll fight again in the December PRIDE to defend my title, as long as I'm healthy. I'm looking forward to go to Inoki's show as well, if not fighting at least to prestige the event since Inoki is a friend of us and I like him a lot. So I'll spend Christmas and New Year's evening in Japan working! [Laughs] After that I'm thinking about renting a house on Brazil's northeast or in the south and spend at least 15 days on the beach relaxing. FCF: Well, at least the money is coming in! [Laughs] Mino: Man, but I really like. I joke about money and stuff but I love what I do. I had that back problem and I was kind of getting tired of all the process, cause I was training hurt, and fighting all the time. Then I stayed away for three months and it was good, cause it makes you value much more your profession! I could see how good it is to be able to be working all the time and I started to value it a lot more again. FCF: Any final message for your fans? Mino: I want to say especially to those who like my way of fighting that you guys are what drive me to do it, when you stop me in the streets to say something about my fights and the likes. I think this fight against Bob Sapp gave me more exposure, even in Japan, and this is what I want to say; I train to do a good spectacle for you, and I hope to never let you down. To my public who is always watching my fights and following my work, I intend to always improve to please you more, and I think I'm improving as a fighter. I intend to keep improving and give you an even better show in the future. FCF: Good luck and thanks a lot! Mino: Eduardo! I want to say that I'll be staying in Japan for five days or so after the fight, to shoot a video clip with a Japanese band! They are doing a music for me, that I'll use in my ring entrances, and I'll be there shooting the video with them for five days after my fight. I even joked with them "We can do it from the 25th to the 29th, depending on how my face will be after the fight!" [Laughs] FCF: This is great! Good luck in the fight and on the video! Mino: Thanks a lot! |
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