Antonio Rogerio Nogueira still has plans – but for now, retirement isn't one of them

After a handful of injury-related stretches of inactivity, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira is aware of the retirement speculation he’s unwillingly been a part of.

But it’s talk the 40-year-old light heavyweight isn’t yet looking to have – at least not for a couple of years.

If nothing changes until Nov. 19, when he’s scheduled to headline UFC Fight Night 100 in Sao Paulo opposite Ryan Bader (21-5 MMA, 14-5 UFC) – this will be the first calendar year since 2011 in which Nogueira (22-7 MMA, 5-4 UFC) will fight twice.

And, after fine-tuning his training and finally catching a break from his own body, he hopes next year will prove even better.

“I had a rough patch,” Nogueira, whose UFC Fight Night 100 main event airs on FS1 from Ibirapuera Gymnasium. said during a media day on Tuesday. “In 2011, I had surgery on my knee for the first time, and then it was a sequel of fights that fell through. (UFC President) Dana White even said, ‘We can’t put Rogerio to do main or co-main events because his fights are being canceled.’ But it wasn’t up to me. It was a health matter.

“In the past year and a half, I’ve been having less sparring sessions. Before, I’d start sparring three months before a fight. Now I look to do MMA sparring just one month and a half before. I’ve been doing more boxing and muay Thai ones, for maintenance. I’ve been looking for quality over intensity.

“This year, I’ve been blessed. Doing my second fight in one year is already a blessing. Next year I’m sure I’m going into it well, hopefully with a win, and will get back with three fights. Increase that goal.”

Example in Dan Henderson

In spite of some outside pressure to call it quits, which got stronger after heavier twin brother Antonio Rodrigo “Minotauro” Nogueira announced his own retirement last year, “Lil’ Nog” hopes his the recent TKO win over Patrick Cummins at UFC 198 (and a losing but close scrap against Mauricio Rua) were enough to prove a point.

Antonio Rogerio Nogueira

“I felt (the pressure) a lot when my brother retired/ ’What about you? Are you retiring?’” Nogueira said. “People wanted to retire me. But last year I did a good fight (against Rua). This year I did an even better one (against Cummins). It confirmed that I could still train. I could still compete at a high level.”

His brother, he explained, not only fought bigger opponents but also had to deal with hip surgeries that ultimately played a factor in his previously explosion-based fighting style. To a point that, in spite of his will, the performance was suffering.

The story, however, is different with the lighter Nogueira, who now looks up to another veteran to continue on his road.

“I’ve been doing physical therapy every day, which has been helping me out a lot,” Nogueira said. “I leave the gym and. Before my nap in between training sessions, I do two hours of it, and this has been changing my past year. It’s been giving me that afterlife.

“You need to keep training and competing among the best. That’s the hardest part. Dan Henderson is an example to be followed. I keep good references. I look for the oldest one and I follow.”

Third time wasn’t the charm

Nogueira’s lingering injuries were the reason behind two bout cancellations against Alexander Gustafsson. This time, however, it was Gustafsson – Nogueira’s original UFC Fight Night 100 opponent – who had to withdraw due to back issues.

Given their history, the circumstances in which Nogueira first heard the news were certainly emblematic.

“This time, I was doing physical therapy – but feeling good – and they called saying Gustafsson was hurt,” Nogueira said. “I couldn’t believe it. I was like, ‘This has to be a joke,’ and it was already at that day, you know, that day when you’re already focused, training with the specific opponents. I was looking for big sparring partners. Everything was in place for that fight.

“So when we get those news – it’s a bad thing, but you need to turn it around. And my will to fight in Brazil is too big, there was no way I was going to turn down that opportunity. They changed opponents and that same day, that same time I accepted it. Let’s move forward to fight Ryan Bader now.”

The long-awaited rematch

The blow of having a thrice-scrapped bout, with two weeks already into his camp, was softened by a few factors. First, it’s not like he got a step down in competition. Ranked No. 5 in the USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie MMA light heavyweight rankings, compared to No. 7 Gustafsson, Bader comes in on the heels of a thunderous knockout win over Ilir Latifi.

But, most importantly, it’s a rematch. And it’s one that, after losing their first encounter at UFC 119, Nogueira was aching to get. Now much more accustomed to the peculiarities of the octagon, he even said that 2010 Bader ultimately helped 2016 Nogueira prepare.

“Coming from PRIDE, I wasn’t that used to fighting wrestlers,” Nogueira said. “I was used to guys who’d stop in front of you, size up the distance, stay there, kick and punch – a fight more like boxing, muay Thai.

“The wrestler takes away your distance. You can’t counter. You need to attack more. It’s a strategic fight. You need to learn how to defend yourself against the fence. You need to learn how to get back up when you fall down. So (the Bader fight) did make me change my training strategy a bit. With Phil Davis I was already fighting a little bit differently.”

The years, Nogueira said, have taught him how to better defend himself, rethink his gameplan, and, with the help of expert he brings in from different parts of the world for his fight-specific camps, hone his wrestling enough to put his well-known boxing chops to use.

But it’s not like Bader, who’d gone on a five-win streak before title challenger Anthony Johnson stopped him in their UFC on FOX 18 headliner in January, has been sitting around.

“I think Ryan Bader has improved physically,” Nogueira said. “You can see he’s stronger. He’s more confident in his boxing. He throws dangerous right hands, a dangerous cross. He’s been improving his striking. But I think he doesn’t have the same experience on the feet that I do, and I have to explore that. The movement, the footwork – I think those are holes in his game.

“It’s a dangerous fight. But now I’ve been very focused on takedown defense, and I think the best way of defending yourself against a guy like Bader is attacking him first. Not wait. If you wait to much, he’ll get in and take it. So you need to keep hitting him, walk around, impose and hit harder so he’ll respect you – not move forward too much and take you down.

“(In the first fight) I think I managed to impose the perfect fight against him in the third round. The first and second rounds, I let him fight too much. (The strategy would) be a fight similar to what I did in the third round.”

Nogueira’s big plan, of course, is to win in November. But after that?

“I was in the top five (of the UFC rankings), but then I got injured that time I was supposed to fight Gustafsson,” Nogueira said. “They removed me from the rankings. I was sad. They put me there in 15th, 20th, but then I came back slowly, did a good fight with ‘Shogun,’ went up to 15, and then after Cummins I went to 10th and ninth. Now I want to get back to the top five then to the top three and hopefully have the title shot I dream of.”

To hear more from Nogueira, check out the video above.

And for more on UFC Fight Night 100, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.