After 11 years of retirement, Alexandre
Franca Nogueira is making a comeback.
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The 47-year-old “King of the Guillotine” has accepted a special
invitation from Japanese promotion Roman Combat to face another
previously retired veteran, 41-year-old Hatsu Hioki,
who last competed against Mikur Azakura at Rizin 12 in 2018. The
155-pound bout will take place on Saturday at Gen Sports Palace in
Tokyo.
“The best moments of my career were in Japan. When the Japanese
promoter invited me to fight there against another veteran, I
immediately accepted,” said Nogueira, who is known in Brazil by the
nickname “Pequeno,” which means small.
A Shooto champion between 1999 and 2005, Nogueira likes the special
rules of the event.
“One round of 15 minutes, with gi in Pride rules and the weigh-ins
20 minutes before each fight. I loved that,” said Nogueira.
Known for his amazing guillotine technique that finished the likes
of Rumina
Sato, Stephen
Palling and Noboru Asahi,
“Pequeno” revealed that he did special training for this fight with
a gi, but his final goal will be the same.
“Since I also graduated as a black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, I
was able to train with some top black belts here in Rio. Hioki
deserves all my respect since he faced some of the toughest names
of his generation like Charles
Oliveira, Dan Hooker,
Clay
Guida — but I studied his game and will try to impose my game
plan, which is no secret: close the distance, take him down and
neutralize him with my guillotine.”
The Brazilian arrived in Japan on Monday and revealed to Sherdog
that he is already on weight for the fight.
“I just can’t wait to feel the energy of the Japanese crowd and try
to give them my best performance,” said Nogueira, who is still
considered in Brazil to be the No. 1 Luta-Livre representative in
MMA history, with Alexandre Cacareco and Johil de
Oliveira coming in second and third, respectively.