Antonio Rogerio Nogueira takes Razor Sharp Close Decision over Jason Brilz at UFC 114

Coming into this light heavyweight bout, many fans were already envisioning an eventual rematch between Antonio Rogerio Nogueira and Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua from their PRIDE FC days, but Jason Brilz who was a late replacement for an injured Forrest Griffin put on one hell of a fight on just four weeks notice and gave ‘Lil’ Nog’ a run for his money.

During the fight, Brilz went to his bread and butter and got the takedown on Nogueira as he utilizes his strength and weight to his advantage as Nog looks to use his Jiu-Jitsu to his advantage, but Brilz had a great gameplan for the former PRIDE veteran as he would change Nogueira’s gameplan in a drastic way.

Nogueira who looked hesitant to strike with Brilz decided to go for broke and nearly paid for it in the second round as Brilz was teeing off with some wild left and right hooks and nearly finishing. but Nogueira hung tight and stood toe to toe with Brilz as they go into the final round and it was a back and forth battle as they both looked for dominant positions on the ground and on the feet as the bout once again went to the judges decision.

However, the judges saw that Nogueira did just enough as he was in favor of two scorecards to get the victory as Brilz was robbed of a sure win and the crowd chants “BULL-SHIT”. Still, Nogueira is unbeaten inside the Octagon and Brilz in defeat will definitely be back inside the Octagon after such a valiant effort.

Props: urdirt.com