Brendan Schaub says you can’t be afraid to fight veterans if you want to succeed in this sport.
Okay, confession time.
It's true, I have always been a huge fan of Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. It may come as a surprise to learn that a knockout artist loves doing jiu-jitsu, but Nogueira is part of the reason for that. He is one of the greatest ground fighters of all-time and is one of the reasons why I was so keen to learn jiu-jitsu in the first place.
I think the awkward (to some) process of conquering heroes started with Gabriel Gonzaga in October 2010. He was the first big name I'd fought in my career and, although his name may not match up to Mirko Cro Cop or Nogueira, he still represented a substantial step up for me. He was a tremendous jiu-jitsu fighter and someone I had watched a lot of when looking to improve my own jiu-jitsu skills.
I picked Gonzaga apart for three rounds and felt pretty comfortable throughout. That win gave me a lot of confidence moving forward, as it made me realize I could beat these veterans of the sport despite only possessing a fraction of their knowledge and experience.
Cro Cop was then the next step on that path, and that fight was even more demanding on paper. Everybody in mixed martial arts has grown up watching Cro Cop at some point, and that presented a slight hurdle to overcome before even touching gloves to start Round 1.
Ultimately, at some point you're going to have to step up and compete with your idols. You can look at someone like Wayne Rooney as an example in soccer. Rooney was just 16 when he broke into the English Premiership, and he was able to achieve that feat simply because he was good enough. He had no fear of making the move and throwing his weight around against grown men. Rooney would have been playing against lots of players he had looked up to as a child, yet none of that fazed him.
Also, like soccer, mixed martial arts is just a sport. I'm not looking to go out and hate these legends. I am just looking to defeat them in a sporting capacity. I have nothing but love and respect for the pioneers of this sport, but that doesn't mean I won't look to add their name to my resume when the time comes.
They say the passing of the torch must happen at some point in every sport, and I really hope that is the case on August 27. Nogueira has been a tremendous servant to mixed martial arts for a number of years, but now it is my time to shine.
I'm not taking Nogueira for granted, though, nor am I assuming he is damaged goods at 35 years of age. Many people have said to me that Nogueira may suffer from ring rust when we fight, as he won't have competed since February 2010, but I don't buy into that. I think if anybody needed some time off to heal and recuperate it was Nogueira. He should be all the better for it.
Also, I don't put Nogueira in the same bracket as some of these other PRIDE legends who have fallen by the wayside in recent years. He knows how to look after himself, he still trains with the best and he still has a point to prove. Those things can make anybody dangerous...
Follow me on Twitter @BrendanSchaub.
Brendan Schaub takes on Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira at UFC 134 on Saturday, Aug. 27 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He is blogging exclusively for sportsnet.ca on a weekly basis ahead of his fight.
UFC 134 will be shown live on pay-per-view at 6 p.m. PT / 9 p.m. ET. Watch live preliminary fights on Sportsnet starting at 5 p.m. PT / 8 p.m. ET.