They’ve done it twice before, and they’ll be doing it once again.
Mauricio Rua and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira are booked to square off for the third time at UFC 250. The news was reported Thursday by UFC broadcast partner ESPN, which cited UFC president Dana White.
UFC 250 is scheduled for May 9 at Ginásio do Ibirapuera in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and will stream on ESPN+ pay-per-view following prelims likely on ESPN and ESPN+/UFC Fight Pass.
Rua (26-11-1 MMA, 10-9-1 UFC) returns to the cage for the first time since a November draw against Paul Craig. Prior to that, “Shogun” won four of five outings. His only loss in that stretch came to future UFC title challenger Anthony Smith.
As for Nogueira (23-9 MMA, 6-6 UFC), the 43-year-old light heavyweight has lost four of six fights. His most recent outing came at UFC 237 last May, when he was knocked out by Ryan Spann. “Lil Nog” was scheduled to compete against Trevor Smith in November in what was pegged to be his final MMA fight. However, Nogueira withdrew because of an injury.
May 9 will mark the trilogy fight between the two Brazilian MMA legends. Their first meeting came at “PRIDE Critical Countdown” in 2005. In the PRIDE middleweight grand prix quarterfinal, Nogueira swept the judges scorecards to win a unanimous decision. The rematch occurred a decade later at UFC 190 in August 2015. This time, it was Rua winning by unanimous decision.
With the addition, the current UFC 250 lineup includes:
- Marion Reneau vs. Kelten Vieira
- Blagoy Ivanov vs. Augusto Sakai
- Bethe Correia vs. Pannie Kianzad
- Antonio Rogerio Nogueira vs. Mauricio Rua
