Background Nogueira won his first four fights before losing his first fight by way of second round submission to future
Bellator Bantamweight Champion Eduardo Dantas. Since then he has won 10 out of his last 12 fights including wins over
Alexis Vila,
Hiroshi Nakamura and Rodolfo Marques.
Bellator Fighting Championships In April 2011, Nogueira signed with the #2 MMA promotion
Bellator. He made his debut against Jerod Spoon winning a unanimous decision. With the win he entered the
Season 5 Bantamweight tournament but lost a unanimous decision to
Ed West in the quarter-finals. His next fight would be against Zak Laird, who he submitted in under a minute in the first round. It was then announced that Nogueira would compete in the
Season 6 Bantamweight tournament. Unlike his previous quarter final, Nogueira notched up the biggest victory of his career thus far, winning a unanimous decision over Olympic Bronze Medalist
Alexis Vila. Nogueira next competed against
Hiroshi Nakamura in the tournament semi-finals. He won the fight via KO in the third round. He faced
Marcos Galvao in the finals of the tournament and lost via second round TKO. In his next bout for the organization, he faced Frank Baca at
Bellator 105 on October 25, 2013. He won via arm triangle choke in the second round.
Pancrase In March 2015, Nogueira signed a multi-fight deal with
Pancrase. ==Personal life==