"The decision I made when we were fighting, I was thinking about winning. I really thought I was going to escape the submission. We escape one, I roll one, two times. I was trying to move my shoulder in, in the same movement I moved that way, he did the other way."
When it was all over, a majority of mixed martial arts (MMA) fans wondered, "Why didn't he just tap?"
Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Heavyweight legend Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira is returning to the Octagon this Saturday night (Oct. 13, 2012) as part of the UFC 153: "Bonnar vs. Silva" pay-per-view (PPV) event from the HSBC Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
It will be his first fight back since UFC 140.
That event, which took place in December 2011, was where "Minotauro' has his arm snapped in half by Frank Mir, after wobbling the former champ and diving to the floor to try and finish him off. Instead, it was the Brazilian who was finished, but only after the referee intervened to save his arm from further damage.
It wasn't vanity.
Instead, Nogueira was planning to make his escape and win the fight. He never once accepted defeat or considered surrender as an option. It's no different than when he got powerbombed by Bob Sapp, or kicked in the face by Mirko Filipovic.
Dave Herman, beware.
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