Carla Krys – Brasil Combate

Antonio Rogerio ‘Minotouro’ Nogueira (16-3) is scheduled to fight at Jungle Fight, Brazil on May 9th against the Dutch fighter Dion Staring.

The fight against the Golden Glory man will be the first time that Nogueira – known as ‘Little Nog’ because he is slightly smaller than his twin brother, UFC heavyweight Rodrigo Nogueira – has fought MMA in his native land.

In the USA, he fights for Affliction. There has been much discussion concerning the long-term future and potential collapse of Affliction, but Little Nog does not believe it is justified.

“A promotion that has Golden Boy promoter Oscar De La Hoya as an associate, and that might be making ties with HBO television, it is far from collapsing. Affliction has one of the richest men in the world and with a super cable network like HBO, it won’t finish.  That’s a lie. The event will still last a long time,” he says.

Nogueira has Renato Babalu as a potential opponent his way in Affliction and shared his thoughts about the former UFC light heavyweight: “Babalu specifically wouldn’t be a person who I’d like to contend. He’s a great athlete, big friend of mine. We have already been together in events many times and he trained with Luiz Alves, our Muay Thai coach, so that he is a man who I wouldn’t like to square off at all.”

For many people, Nogueira should be fighting for the UFC given his top-level experience and great talent. But he explained that it is simply a reason of economics.

“I already received proposals. But by that time it was not interesting because Affliction offered me a better contract, then it was a question of choice,” he said.

Affliction Entertainment has been plagued by rumours of its impending demise ever since it first announced it would be entering the MMA game.

Thus far the company has staged two shows – both of which reportedly lost money – and is yet to announce a date for its third show, although Affliction VP Tom Atencio insists a third show will be forthcoming.

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