Minotauro Nogueira prefers the high road, er, hard road to victory

Only Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira would consider a punch in the face as an opportunity to win. As he tells Kevin Iole over at Yahoo! Sports, eating a few fists and elbows comes with playing a jiu-jitsu game:

“If you’re going to play jiu-jitsu in the UFC, you have to be comfortable enough to play on the bottom. You have to have a strong chin and not be afraid of the punches when you play guard. You can’t have any fear to play jiu-jitsu. You know you’re going to open holes. You know you’re going to get hit and take a lot of punishment, but you have to remain calm and watch very carefully because a hole will open at any time.

“When your opponent is punching you, yes, he’s hurting you maybe, but he’s opening holes and putting himself at risk, too. In my last fight [at UFC 102] with Randy [Couture], if you watched, you can see that Randy threw the elbow and I swept him. I let him stay [in my guard] and be comfortable because I knew he would be open. You learn from experience. There’s pain, but there’s also gain. When you are going in competition you have to be prepared to win but you also have to be prepared to lose.”

If that doesn’t get your respect and admiration you’re not a true fan of the sport.

Big Nog will have a chance to put his submissions – and his face – to the test when he faces Cain Velasquez in Saturday’s UFC 110 heavyweight headliner from Sydney, Australia. Nog is an MMA legend, a PRIDE and UFC champ with a 32-5-1 record and a list of opponents that reads like Batman’s rogues gallery – Fedor Emelianenko, Couture, Dan Henderson, Mark Coleman, Bob Sapp, Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic, Josh Barnett, Frank Mir and on and on.

And his fight with Velasquez, a 7-0 wrestling stud who’s biggest challenge previously was Cheick Kongo, could earn him the first shot at heavyweight champ Brock Lesnar when Lesnar finally makes his return to the octagon. Yes, Shane Carwin and Frank Mir are set to face off for the interim belt at next month’s UFC 111 – a bout that was arranged even before we knew Lesnar would likely be back by July – but everyone still has to prove they deserve the title shot, according to UFC president Dana White. And who’s to say Mir or Carwin won’t be too injured following their battle to face Lesnar when he returns?

For my money, I’m hoping Big Nog out-boxes Velasquez and knocks him out, saving himself a beating in the process. Barring that, I expect Velasquez will use his wrestling and put Big Nog on his back, maybe start dropping some fists onto his face and opening the door for Big Nog to tap him out. Letting someone smash you while you hunt for submissions is a rough road to take to victory. It’s certainly not the safest or easiest or smartest or least painful, and it sure can’t make it easy to look in the mirror the next morning, but that’s what makes Minotauro a legend.