Antonio Rogerio Nogueira asks Rich Franklin to wait until he recovers from injury

Former PRIDE FC veteran, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira has today pleaded with former UFC middleweight champion, Rich Franklin to wait for him to recover from injury so the pair can have the fight that was so eagerly anticipated for this weekends UFC 133 event in Philadelphia.
Speaking via Tatame Magazine, Nogueira said:

“I’ve injured my neck, unfortunately I couldn’t train anymore. I couldn’t move, so I went to see the doctor and he thought it was best if I postponed the fight. I was training with Feijao (Rafael Cavalcante) and he caught me with a triangle choke. I defended, but got injured. Feijao has a leg the size of a hippo (laughs).”

“I can’t wait to fight him… Please, Rich Franklin, wait for me (laughs). Don’t let me with no opponent (laughs). When I fought Sokoudjou (in Pride) I had a neck injury and I was defeated, so I won’t risk it anymore. It was an exciting fight for me, it’d strike, trade punches… I was disappointed, it was a big fight for me, but now I only fight when I’m 100% good to go, and this injury was pretty serious.”

“I’m working to strengthen my muscles, doing physiotherapy… I’ve been working, doing two sessions a day. They say I’ll be back next week, but then he’ll evaluate me again because I’m still under a lot of pain… It kept me away from the fight, but I’m doing the right treatment to comeback.”

Nogueira’s torrid time continued inside the octagon just last month when he came up short against rookie Phil Davis on the UFC on Versus 3 card. Prior to that he’d been smothered on route to a loss to Ryan Bader and squeaked past Jason Brilz via split decision.