Former Pride heavyweight champion and UFC interim heavyweight champion Antonio "Minotauro" Nogueira is hopeful that he will return to action soon and be back on his way to title contention. But for now, he's still waiting to learn the name of his next opponent.

Nogueira (32-6-1 1 NC) has thrilled fight fans for years with his masterful displays of jiu-jitsu, as well as his almost legendary toughness. Along the way he has defeated some of the biggest names in the sport, men like Randy Couture, Josh Barnett, Mirko "Cro Cop" Filopovic, and Dan Henderson.

Recently, however, Nogueira has fallen on some tough times.

"Minotauro" battled through a staph infection before suffering the first TKO loss of his career against Frank Mir at UFC 92. After rebounding from that loss with an exciting victory over Randy Couture, Nogueira was stopped for the second time in three fights by Cain Velasquez, who knocked him out with brutal speed just over two minutes into their battle at UFC 110.

For now Nogueira has fallen back into the familiar pattern of training, continuing to hone the skills that have enabled him to excel and dominate in MMA for over a decade. Although "Minotauro" may not know who he's facing next, he isn't letting a small detail like that slow him down.

Speaking to Tatame.com, Nogueira seemed relaxed when asked when he would return to action.

"I hope it's soon," said Nogueira. "There's nothing scheduled, we had Rogério's fight this weekend, a hard fight, he did a good fight, worked on his Wrestling on the second round, won the first one, in my opinion, sure won the third and he made his game... It was a great fight! The focus was only on Rogério and now we're starting to focus on my training, I'll do a new camp for this next fight. Today we trained ground game, we've been training with kimonos, here in San Diego, two or three times a week. We started the training with the kimono and we end it without, we're trying to improve my Jiu-Jitsu. There's nothing scheduled yet, but I'm hoping to fight soon, I'm anxious and I have good expectations for this next battle."

Although many fans have hoped for a rematch between Nogueira and Frank Mir, recent rumors of a planned fight between Mir and Gabriel Gonzaga seem to have cast doubt on that possibility. For his part, "Minotauro" is content to face anyone the UFC decides to put in front of him.

"I don't know anything yet," Nogueira stated. "We are waiting and I'll fight against whoever they tell me to. I'll try to do my best and got off there with a win. I'm waiting for some results, and I'll wait for them to say something."

Nogueira still has a keen personal interest in the UFC heavyweight belt, and when asked to make a prediction for the upcoming contest between Shane Carwin and Brock Lesnar for the unified title at UFC 116, he didn't hesitate.

"Man, I think Carwin is more aggressive, has a better hand, is coming through a good phase on his career and I believe in his game," Nogueira said. "But, for the future, I can see other athletes coming closer and I think this belt will end on Brazilian's hands, maybe Junior dos Santos and me trying to win this belt, and I really want to make it (laughs)."

Nogueira also feels his twin brother Antonio...