FanHouse Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira

In August of 1995, Sports Illustrated's Tom Verducci penned a feature about pitcher Greg Maddux entitled "Once in a Lifetime." Wearing an Atlanta Braves uniform, Maddux also graced the cover of SI in that issue. The photo showed a focused Maddux a nanosecond after delivering a pitch. The caption read "The Greatest Pitcher You'll Ever See."

One line in the story has stuck with me for all these years: "Did you see van Gogh paint? No, you could respond, but I saw Greg Maddux pitch." Maddux, of course, has nothing to do with MMA (although he has attended at least one UFC event), but the premise of the story has everything to do with Saturday night.

Fedor Emelianenko is MMA's van Gogh, its immeasurably gifted genius, and Saturday, he will be fighting Brett Rogers in front of the largest American audience ever to witness him.

The best heavyweight in the history of mixed martial arts, Fedor Emelianenko, will fight live on CBS on November 7, and on Wednesday the UFC announced that it will counter-program Fedor with the second- and third-best heavyweights in MMA history, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Randy Couture.

Spike TV will re-play the classic Nogueira vs. Couture slugfest from UFC 102 at the same time that CBS is showing Fedor vs. Brett Rogers, meaning UFC fans who missed UFC 102 on pay-per-view will get a chance to watch it for the price of basic cable.

Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira says he's ready to fight anytime, and hopes to fight for the title or avenge his most recent loss if he has his way.

"I want Brock Lesnar for sure," said Nogueira, who rebounded from a UFC 92 loss to Frank Mir by defeating Randy Couture by unanimous decision at UFC 102 in August. "I want to fight him. But I would fight Frank Mir also. That's my second choice."

Lesnar is scheduled to fight Shane Carwin in November, but Nogueira is clearly still a top-five UFC heavyweight, and fresh off his teammate Junior Dos Santos' dominating performance over Mirko Cro Cop at UFC 103, Nogueira told FanHouse that he's re-energized in his chase for UFC gold.

Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira says he's feeling great after his UFC 102 victory over Randy Couture, and he's hoping to fight again soon, with the goal of getting a shot at UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar.

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Lessons is a FanHouse feature in which we ask someone in the MMA world to teach us about one aspect of Brazilian jiu jitsu. Today Joe D'Arce talks about the D'Arce choke.

During the first round of Saturday's UFC 102 main event, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira knocked Randy Couture down and attempted to submit him with a D'Arce choke -- a move that was named after Brazilian jiu jitsu black belt Joe D'Arce. To find out more about the move, I called D'Arce at his gym, D'Arce Brazilian Jiu Jitsu of Long Island, and asked him to explain the move's origins and how it came to bear his name.

Nine months after they went toe-to-toe in one of the biggest fights in UFC history, Brock Lesnar and Randy Couture met again Saturday night in Portland, this time backstage before Couture fought Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira at UFC 102.

Check out the video below.

Frank Mir is, in addition to being one of the best heavyweights in mixed martial arts, also one of the best analysts of mixed martial arts. And in an interview with Raw Vegas TV, he had plenty to say about subjects ranging from the Randy Couture vs. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira fight at UFC 102 to his anger at Joe Rogan's comments during that fight. Also, he discussed his UFC 100 fight with Brock Lesnar, Fedor Emelianenko's decision not to fight in the UFC and a possible fight between Mir and UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva. Video and quotes are below.

Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Randy Couture are both old and past their primes. But even old and past their primes, Nogueira and Couture are plenty good.

After their epic battle on Saturday night, which Nogueira won by unanimous decision, I consider both Couture and Nogueira to be among the Top 5 heavyweights in mixed martial arts. But at the same time, I think there's a pretty big gap between the Top 2 heavyweights in MMA -- Brock Lesnar and Fedor Emelianenko -- and everyone else.

So as I go through my new list of the Top 10 heavyweights in MMA, I mean no disrespect to Couture and Nogueira even as I say they're not close to the best.

The UFC is vigilant about protecting its copyright, so when people illegally upload fights to YouTube, they're quickly taken down. But if you missed the UFC 102 main event of Randy Couture vs. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira Saturday night, you can at least get a little bit of it on the UFC's official YouTube channel.