Conor McGregor is jumping from the biggest MMA promotion in the world to compete in boxing, but he’s not the first to do it.
With wins over the likes of Alistair Overeem and Kazushi Sakuraba under his belt, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira decided to try his luck in boxing when he was under contract with PRIDE in Japan. The Bahia-native, who held a 10-1 MMA record back in 2004, was invited to compete in an amateur boxing match in Bahia, and was victorious.
Nogueira's longtime boxing coach Luiz Carlos Dorea, who trained stars like former boxing world champion Acelino “Popo" Freitas and UFC champion Anderson Silva, approved of Nogueira's performance in the boxing ring and suggested that he signed up to compete in the state championship.