Ballet of Violence

Despite these achievements, MMA commenters have slept on Nogueira’s dramatic improvements in his striking game. In large part this is because Little Nog’s MMA career took an unfortunate two year detour. In 2005, he approached the very top of the division, losing a razor thin decision to Mauricio “Shogun” Rua at PRIDE Critical Countdown in 2005. Shogun went on to win the PRIDE 2005 205lb Grand Prix and cement his status as the uncrowned champion of the division. But Nogueira„ after taking an impressive TKO win over Alistair Overeem in 2006, found himself on the wrong end of a KO loss to Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou in 2007. Then PRIDE collapsed and Little Nog spent most of the next two years in exile, wandering from Sengoku to Affliction to Jungle Fight. Because of the dramatic drop-off in the caliber of his competition, few noticed that Nogueira was racking up a string of TKO wins — of his 5 career TKOs, all have taken place in the last three years.