Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC

Alexandre Franca Nogueira is a name not known by many in the mixed martial arts world today, but from 2000 to 2005, Nogueira ruled the 145lbs weight class with an crushing grip. A practitioner of Luta Livre, 'Pequeno' captured and held the Shooto 143lbs title for six years, one of the longest title reigns in MMA history, and submitted the vast majority of his challengers. Most by way of his legendary guillotine choke.

Perhaps no fighter has become as synonymous with one technique as Pequeno with his guillotine. These weren't clueless strikers he was submitting, these were the best grappling standouts Shooto could produce. Men like Rumina Sato and Hideki Kadowaki. Both found themselves gurgling in the guillotine choke the exact same way.



Silky smooth.

In the early 2000s the UFC didn't have a featherweight class. The place to be, for the little men, was in Japan—fighting under the Shooto banner. Later, World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC) began to build a stronger featherweight class and Nogueira, the pioneer, was invited along in 2008 to make it legitimate.

But by 2008, Nogueira had suffered something of a fall from grace. In 2005, Hideo Tokoro, the famous janitor turned fighter, had clipped Nogueira with a spinning backfist at the beginning of the third round of a wild contest and knocked Nogueira out. Nogueira fought just once in 2006 and 2007 as the Japanese mixed martial arts scene slowly fell apart.

He hoped that the WEC would give him a new lease on life, fighting much closer to home. In his promotional debut, he was matched against a young Brazilian Jiu Jitsu player riding a three fight win streak, all by mundane decision, Jose Aldo.

On the undercard of Jens Pulver versus Urijah Faber, which drew a record 1.5 million viewers for the WEC, Nogueira versus Aldo was not hotly anticipated. In fact, the crowd spent much of the match booing, despite the technique on display. These were still dark days for mixed martial arts.

As the first round progressed one thing became painfully obvious. Nogueira was not going to get Aldo to the ground. Each time Nogueira attempted to shoot in, Aldo would feed him the single-leg takedown, jam Nogueira's head downward (putting the dog collar on him as Roberto Abreu would say), and limp leg out.

Jose Aldo has come a long way in the last six years, but that feeding of the single and limp legging out is still a huge part of his game. Even against the great wrestler, Chad Mendes, Aldo spread his legs, Mendes picked up the single, and Aldo turned his knee down and kicked out.

Aldo's boxing was simplistic in this bout, combinations landed largely against Pequeno's forearms, but Aldo continually looked for a nice Inside Right—slipping to the inside and throwing a jabbing straight right rather than a booming right hook.

It was Aldo's movement that was leaps and bounds ahead of Pequeno's. Even though his boxing looked a little formulaic, Aldo was already using pivots better than anyone else in mixed martial arts. Most fighters attack on a straight line, it's hard to do anything else, so breaking that line will result in them either flying past or being forced to break their attack, turn, and reset. Sometimes this is called cutting the hip, taking an angle, giving him “looks”, or simply angling out.

It’s as effective in the striking realm as it is in the wrestling one.

Aldo didn't capitalize on these tasty pivots, but you can watch his bouts with The Korean Zombie and Ricardo Lamas to see him pivoting off line and coming back on with counter strikes.

By the second round, Aldo was teeing off on the feet and Pequeno was diving hopelessly after legs. As Aldo limp legged out of one final attempt, Pequeno flopped back to guard. It was that defeated position we have seen from so many fighters now. There's pulling guard and there's flopping hopelessly back with no grips, hoping the opponent dives on you so you can just grapple for a little while.

Aldo, however, obliged. A straight right thwacked Nogueira's head back into the mat and Aldo set to work passing guard immediately.

Nogueira underhooked a leg as he got back to half guard but Aldo brought his weight down on it, trapping Nogueira's wrist between hamstring and calf. The great Mario Sperry used to bait an underhook on his leg in Jiu Jitsu competition specifically to trap the hand in this position and begin passing it under the opponent's back in order to perform his one armed man guard pass.

But in mixed martial arts? It's even worse. The guard player now has one hand to defend himself against both of his opponent's fists. Fedor Emelianenko used this position in battering Tsuyoshi Kohsaka. But Aldo was more methodical. Sitting on Nogueira's right wrist and left leg, Aldo took a two-on-one grip on Nogueira's free arm, drew it away from Nogueira's face, and dropped his weight into left elbow strikes.

Nogueira kept fighting, struggling, but it was hopeless. He was trapped and being force-fed elbows, and there was nothing in any other area of the fight to suggest he stood a chance anywhere else. This was his world, Aldo had obliged him and he still found himself helpless. The younger, hungrier, slicker new breed sat atop him, dropping razor sharp elbows and cutting his face open until Steve Mazagatti mercifully stopped the bout. Pequeno did not protest.

The featherweight division was going in a new direction. With men like Urijah Faber and Mike Brown on the rise, Nogueira was being forgotten. Aldo had just made him seem like a relic. It was made worse by the fact that Nogueira, desperate to get his career back on track, tested positive for the anabolic steroid, Boldenone.

Nogueira was handed a year-long ban, returning to action in Japan against the curious striker, Lion Takeshi who promptly knocked him out. It seemed like a sad end to a great career, but Nogueira returned to action in 2012, going 5-0-1 in his last six matches. Nogueira hasn't fought since May of last year, and I sincerely hope he keeps it that way, because that streak is a far better way to go out.

Jose Aldo's debut was impressive enough to get him a return performance and was to be the first of a record breaking eight wins in the WEC. Stay tuned to Fightland as we follow The Path of Aldo and The Path of McGregor to their collision point.

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