Video: Watch 'Minotauro' Nogueira knock out Brendan Schaub at UFC 134

It isn’t easy to just stroll back in the cage after 18 months away.

But Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira sort of made it look that way in August 2011. After a long layoff following his heavyweight title eliminator loss to Cain Velasquez, “Big Nog” returned against a tough test in Brendan Schaub.

At UFC 134 in his native Brazil, he set his home fans off with a first-round knockout of the “The Hybrid.”

“Minotauro” has had an up and down run in the UFC with just one two-fight winning streak, and alternated losses and wins since then. But he loves to rebound from his losses with big wins, and that’s what he’ll try to do next.

Next week, Nogueira (34-8-1 MMA, 5-4 UFC) needs to bounce back from a submission loss to Fabricio Werdum. He’ll try to do so against Roy Nelson (19-9 MMA, 6-5 UFC) in the main event of UFC Fight Night 39 in Abu Dhabi.

But before that, check out Nogueira’s “Knockout of the Night” win over Schaub in the video above.

For more on UFC Fight Night 39, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of the site.