Nogueira, he hopes, is the final bullet point in the list of reasons he's deserving of a title shot.

"That would be five wins straight. If I can beat Nogueira convincingly in his own backyard, I think you look at the layout of the heavyweight division, and I've got a good argument for it," Schaub said.

He's mostly right, although you can also argue he's merely piggybacking on a few dying stars, ostentatiously climbing the ladder rather than fighting all comers. "Cro Cop" and "Big Nog," after all, are not the fighters they once were. Filipovic will fight one last time, a sympathy gesture after back-to-back knockout losses capped by Schaub's last-minute hammer at UFC 128. The 35-year-old Nogueira is 2-3 in the octagon and has sat out the past year-and-a-half. Oddsmakers say he has about a 30 percent chance of winning the Aug. 27 fight, which takes place at HSBC Arena in Rio de Janeiro.

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tags: Brendan Schaub (detail)  UFC 134