Antonio Rogerio “Minotoro” Nogueira vs. Dion Staring at Jungle Fight on May 9

Antonio Rogerio “Minotoro” Nogueira will face off with the Golden Glory trained Dion Staring at a Jungle Fight event scheduled to take place on May 9, at Fortaleza, Ceará in Brazil.

Nogueira, commonly referred to as “Lil Nog” because of him being physically smaller than his identical twin and former UFC interim heavyweight champion Antônio Rodrigo “Minotauro” Nogueira, will be fighting for the first time since his second round TKO stoppage of Vladimir Matyushenko at Affliction: Day of Reckoning in January.

Outside of the recently avenged unanimous decision loss at the hands of Matyushenko in 2002, Nogueira has only suffered two defeats during his fighting career. One being a hard fought unanimous decision loss to Mauricio “Shogun” Rua in June of 2005, and the other being the shocking upset knockout suffered at the hands of Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou in February of 2007. Lil Nog has put together wins over names such as Kazushi Sakuraba, Alistair Overeem, and Dan Henderson throughout the course of his career and is widely considered to be one of the most talented light heavyweights in the business.

The fight was announced this afternoon on Tatame.com where Nogueira had this to say,”I think that I’ll go well and I will get another victory. Being in Brazil, it will have a special taste”.

The bout with Staring will surprisingly mark Nogueira’s first professional bout in his native home of Brazil.

Staring is an experienced veteran that trains out of Team Golden Glory along the likes of Sergei Kharitonov, Alistair Overeem and Semmy Schilt. He has amassed an impressive record of 15-5 during his fighting career with nine of his victories coming by either knockout or TKO. Staring has lost his last two bouts, one being by doctor stoppage and the other coming by armbar submission.