UFC 131 – Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira says Junior dos Santos’ rise didn’t just happen by chance

Former UFC and PRIDE champion, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira has been speaking about the rise to prominence of fellow Brazilian and protégé, Junior dos Santos ahead of “Cigano’s” clash with Shane Carwin next weekend at UFC 131, explaining it didn’t just happen by chance.
Speaking via Sherdog.com, Nogueira said:

“Dos Santos wanted to succeed in the sport. I remember his wife, who’s an architect, went to my uncle, and they called me to say they had a kid who wanted to test himself. I was training on the ground with him and told Yuri [Carlton] to ‘train the boy a bit more’ because he wasn’t ready. The guy trained for more than a year and a half before Yuri sent him back to me and asked me how he looked. I told him he was good now.”

“He had great determination and came to Rio de Janeiro alone. He had yet to evolve, but we could see he had the coordination and capacity to improve. I remember Dos Santos at the beginning of his training and then against Werdum [at UFC 90]. At first, he was a fighter. After he spent three months with us, he was a different guy.

“In three months, he showed great evolution with his training. Nobody took him to the ground. He gained great confidence, and we said at that point that it was going to be impossible to defeat him. Nobody else could take him to the ground, which is why I didn’t think Werdum would be able to. That’s exactly what happened.”

“It was his dedication. He was working on something else and dropped everything to fight. His wife helped out, and he went to the academies. He was always trying to evolve. People wonder if he was luck. No, he searched out his training and positioned himself well. He’s a guy who struggled to get where he is. Things didn’t happen by chance.”

The man dubbed “Cigano” has looked unstoppable since debuting with the UFC three years ago, stopping the likes of Fabricio Werdum and Mirko Cro Cop inside the distance while dishing out a very impressive drubbing to “Ultimate Fighter” season ten winner Roy Nelson. Stay tuned to MMABay for more build-up to this one as we get it.