Antonio Rogerio Nogueira Says It’s Hard To Get Back Into Fighting Shape

In an interview with MMA Junkie, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira spoke about training to get back into fighting shape, noting that it’s not easy to do so. Here are highlights:

On training: “It’s hard to get back to training hard again. (I was just) training only boxing, only a little bit jiu-jitsu, but not really hard, like professional training. So this month, for me, (has been) very hard to get back. But I think the process is good because I love to fight. When I think of my fans, my student, my kids – I want to make something very good next month for them.”

On still believing he can compete at a high level: “My brother, he was training very good, fighting good, but he had a problem with the knee, with the ribs. I don’t have a big problem. Just my lower back, but I think I can train, I can fight well. I think about Randy Couture, he fought – when he retired? 46, 44, maybe. Dan Henderson, he retired, what, at 46 years old. I think I can fight maybe more two years, one year. Let’s see.”

On his future in MMA: “I’ve been fighting for almost 20 years. We made a lot of good fights. I think that it’s time to see how I’m going to fight my next one. That fight is going to be very important to see (how) my body works, the timing, my speed, my mind. My move. So let’s see. I think now, in the future, make a good result,” Nogueira said. “Give some good knockouts in the future. Use my boxing. Use my jiu-jitsu. And, I think, fighting well, that’s my main goal in the UFC. And then stay in that top-5 again.”