After Mauricio "Shogun" Rua picked up a win over Brandon Vera at UFC on Fox 4 on Saturday, he was not granted the UFC light heavyweight title shot he had hoped for. So the big question was simple - what's next for Shogun? The Ultimate Fighter Brazil 2 will be kicking off soon, and it was all but confirmed that Shogun was going to be a coach on the show against Lyoto Machida before this recent light heavyweight kerfuffle. Since that's clearly out the window now with Machida getting a title shot, who could coach against Rua?

Enter Lil' Nog.

Antonio Rogerio Nogueira recently did an interview with Tatame where he stated that he'd really like that spot:

"I would love to, it’d be awesome… A dream."

Shogun and Lil Nog engaged in one of the best MMA fights ever in Pride a few years ago, and Nog likes the idea of the rematch:

"It would be very good to me and it would be a rematch of 2005's fight, which is something people wanna see. If I have a chance to coach the guys at TUF and also fight him, it would be amazing."

Nogueira helped out his brother Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira when he coached TUF 8, and thinks Big Nog got a lot out of it:

"Rodrigo learned a lot from TUF. He learned more about being a coach and how to make the team united and gathered. On the United States he's seen by many as the best coach the show ever had and he got even more famous after the show."

If they're going to stick to their guns and make Shogun a coach, there aren't really any other options. I guess Glover Teixeira might be a possibility, but it'd be unlikely.. Shogun famously turned down a fight with Glover, but if Teizeira can beat Quinton "Rampage" Jackson at UFC 153 it might change Rua's opinion a bit. Still though, it seems pretty clear that Shogun and Nogueira would be great choices to coach.



