Held in Rome, Georgia, on Jan. 15, 2000, the eighth WEF show made the names of a new generation coming up in MMA, including Renato Sobral, Matt Hughes, Jose Landi-Jons and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira.
Minotauro’s Fifth Win
One morning in 1999, as Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira trained no-gi at Conan Silveira’s gym in Miami, WEF promoter Jamie Levine showed up to train. Impressed by the Bahia native’s potential, Conan matched the two of them to roll together, and told Rodrigo not to take it easy on the blue belt.