DISCLAIMER: a fairly long read. If you are intelligent and have the capability to read books higher than the 8th grade reading level, you should enjoy it though. Hopefully at least. If you can't do that, I have the summarized 1 sentence version in bold toward the bottom that you can read instead.
So as a self-admitted and classified "PRIDE fanboy", it was very sad to see Minotauro be finished yesterday. Not only finished, but in devastating fashion. If you are one of the many "UFC > PRIDE AND ALWAYS WAS" guys, please take the next several moments to basque in glory before moving on. For everybody else, go ahead and keep reading.
Today it was revealed that the actual injury that Big Nog sustained was a broken humerus. This is, in simplest terms, a huge fucking bone in your arm and very tough to break. I guess that is what happens when you have 260+ pound black belts cranking on your arm. Here is the X-Ray photo released
UFC 140 Photo: X-Ray of Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira's Broken Arm From Bout Against Frank Mir - Bloody Elbow
Judging from the possibilities, this is actually
GOOD NEWS FOR MINOTAURO FANS. Well, kinda, but I'll start with the bad news first.
The bad news:
Like I said, the humerus is a huge fucking bone in the arm and pretty tough to break. He will be prohibited from training for approximately 16 weeks in order to repair the damages sustained.
The Good News
From watching the fight yesterday, although the submission was a kimura, it was clear that the damage done was not to the shoulder. This in itself is very fortunate. The shoulder is a ball-and-socket joint infamously tough for repairs as it is a very complicated fix. Many people believed it to be the elbow. The elbow is another joint which can be hyperextended for serious injury. Ligaments in the elbow can be torn, which are also very tough to repair. In the case of joint injuries, the joint rarely ever returns to "full strength" (See Shogun Rua after first Mark Coleman fight. Not making excuses to his recent losses, but in my opinion he has never re-gained that extra snap in his punches he used to have. If you disagree, simply disregard this statement. I was just trying to make a point!)
Big Nog broke his humerus, a
BONE. Yes he will be out for a long time, but
BONES are known to repair back to full strength, sometimes even stronger than it was before. If you don't believe me, you can do some research yourself or see it here
Humerus Fractures . If he decides he wants to still fight, which I believe he will because he is fucking awesome and a warrior, he will be able to do that after a full recovery.
For Minotauro fans, I believe this is the best he has looked in the UFC (maybe the fight vs Couture could be argued). Even in his wins over Herring and Sylvia, I believed he looked very sluggish, and obviously his first fight with Mir was just terrible. But I thought his boxing looked crisp and dominated Mir in that aspect. He simply made a mistake vs another BJJ black-belt known for devastating submissions and paid for it... big time. Another thread commented on the fact that Herb Dean screwed Big Nog by constantly warning him not to hit the back of the head when he wasn't. I must say I completely agree with the thread, as Nog immediately switched to the guillotine AFTER Herb Dean kept saying it. But I'm going to move on before I get flamed too badly for this.
Simple one sentence conclusion for illiterate assholes Minotauro looked great tonight and will be back to 100% after his recovery.
Other Comments:
-Unlike Minotauro, Tito Ortiz did not look good at all tonight. Not hating on the guy, but the one-sided beatdown was pretty brutal to watch. He pretty much got punished the entire time until the referee showed mercy and stopped it. Was sad to see him get beat that bad, although I was rooting for Lil Nog. Hope the UFC does the right thing and lets him finish out his contract with a W. Rubber match with Forrest sounds good to me. Or possibly a fight with Rich Franklin. A winnable opponent yet still a big name and big fight.
-Big Nog fight kinda reminded me of Chuck Liddell, in the way that they both looked awesome up until the very end. In Liddell's retirement fight vs. Franklin, he showed solid boxing and better footwork than ever. Then, well, you know what happened....
-Great exciting PPV, but with sad results. Who can stop Jon Jones? I thought Lyoto's style would give him trouble, and he didn't make it out of the second round. Rashad has a pretty weak chin and would get mauled. Henderson has the infamous H-Bomb, but conditioning is going to be a big problem.
If you made it to this point, congratulations! Pat yourself on the back and reward yourself with cookies, it's winter break.
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