Brendan Schaub - Hybrid's Theory
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- Category: UFC News
- Published on Wednesday, 24 August 2011 05:00
- Written by By Thomas Gerbasi
It’s a devil’s bargain for Brendan Schaub. Defeat fighters like Mirko Cro Cop and “Minotauro” Nogueira and he will accelerate his ride to a world title shot. In the process though, he may alienate a significant portion of the diehard fanbase that doesn’t particularly care to see their heavyweight heroes defeated by young guns like “The Hybrid.”
That’s a price the 28-year old banger is willing to pay though; and in fact, he understands where the fans are coming from, mainly because he’s one of them.
“I think it comes with the territory,” said Schaub. “They’re either gonna love you or hate you, and especially with Cro Cop and Nogueira, they have the diehard fans, and I’m one of them. I grew up with these guys and I was the uber-PRIDE fan, so I get it. So when those diehard fans talk trash about me, I get it and I don’t take any offense to it because I love those guys too. But I want what they have and there’s only one way to do that and that’s by going in there and beating them.”
The Colorado native tested the big league waters last October with a decision win over former top contender Gabriel Gonzaga, and then entered a whole new realm with his third round knockout of Cro Cop at UFC 128 in March. This Saturday, he will look to take out a second PRIDE legend in Nogueira at UFC RIO, and he’s pulled out all the stops to prepare for the only man to hold heavyweight titles in the UFC and Japan’s premier MMA organization.
“This one has been the roughest training camp I’ve ever had,” said Schaub. “There’s been a change of coaches, I’ve had to travel more than ever for this camp, and it’s such a high pressure and high profile fight that I’ve exhausted every option possible. There’s literally nothing else I can do. I’ve never been more prepared in my life or more nervous for a fight, and I think that’s why I’ve trained so hard."
If you want to call that a recitation of the usual pre-fight clichés, you can, but you would be wrong. Schaub has heard all the talk about Nogueira being on the tail-end of a storied career due to a series of injuries and a seemingly endless number of wars, but then again, he heard that about Cro Cop as well, and he got a helluva fight out of the Croatian veteran before knocking him out in the final round. Luckily, Schaub said he was preparing for the best Cro Cop possible, and when he got a pretty damn good version of him, he was ready. So not only did Schaub get the win and a high profile name on his resume; he got a Master Class in high-level heavyweight MMA.
“I got out of there and told my coach ‘wow,’” laughed Schaub. “When I took him down and I got back up and I was standing over him, man, he went to town on my leg, he upkicked me in the face, and I’m just not used to that. He’s used to those PRIDE days where if you’re down there you’re getting stomped in the face. So I’m down there and I’m thinking I’m fine, and the next thing I know, a flying heel kick to my face, he hyperextends my knee, and just in the clinch, I relaxed for a second and I paid dearly for it. He threw the nastiest elbow I’ve ever seen and broke my nose pretty severely. So I think the experience I’m getting by going three minutes with Gonzaga and going nearly three rounds with Cro Cop is priceless.”
It is. Always a talented athlete with speed and power, Schaub showed the ability to dig deep in a dogfight and win against Cro Cop, and if anyone is going to have the heart and determination to take him into deep waters again, it’s Nogueira. But that’s if “Minotauro” is back to his old self after a loss to Cain Velasquez in 2010 and a series of surgeries to fix up some long-nagging injuries. Schaub thinks he is.
“If you were to base...
