UFC 190 Notebook: Homeland Security

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Though the mileage has accumulated and his competitive prime has long since passed, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira still has no issues dialing up the motivation.

Nogueira will return to the cage for the first time in more than a year at UFC 190 “Rousey vs. Correia” on Saturday, when he meets the 6-foot-11 Stefan Struve in a three-round heavyweight clash at the HSBC Arena in Rio de Janeiro. The 39-year-old Brazilian has not fought since he succumbed to punches from onetime International Fight League champion Roy Nelson in April 2014 and has not recorded a win since October 2012. Nogueira went to great lengths to prepare for Struve.

“We trained a lot; we trained for almost 16 weeks,” he told Sherdog.com. “I changed my body, I changed my mind and improved a lot of my skills, strategy-wise, to fight against Struve.”

Like Nogueira, Struve has suffered back-to-back defeats. The Dutchman last competed at UFC on Fox 13 in December, when he wound up on the wrong side of a first-round knockout against former Strikeforce champion Alistair Overeem. Struve, 27, will step into the Octagon with eight-inch height and seven-inch reach advantages.

“He’s not a normal guy,” Nogueira said. “He’s got one of the biggest reaches in MMA. He’s got some ground work, too, some submission game. He strikes, kicks [and] throws knees, so we have to improve a lot of things.”

Nogueira welcomes the opportunity to perform before the Brazilian faithful. Only three of his 45 career bouts have taken place in his homeland.

“I’m very excited to fight in Brazil,” Nogueira said. “This is my hometown, so I’m going to do my best. This guy is not going to come here and win in my town.”

FROM CHAMPION TO CONTENDER

Jessica Aguilar will enter the Ultimate Fighting Championship with a proven track record but without the benefit of a tune-up fight.

The former World Series of Fighting champion will throw her name in the hat of women’s strawweight contenders when she faces Claudia Gadelha in what amounts to a title eliminator as part of the seven-fight main card at UFC 190. The 33-year-old American Top Team standout will carry a 10-fight winning streak into her organizational debut and hopes to parlay the momentum into a victory over Gadelha and a shot at 115-pound champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk.

“I’m ready, and I’m not starting from scratch,” Aguilar told Sherdog.com. “Look how close I am to that title. I’m just honored to be here, to be on this platform now [and] to show the world who I am.”

An Andre Pederneiras-trained Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt, Gadelha finds herself on the rebound following her first professional setback -- a split decision loss to the aforementioned Jedrzejczyk on Dec. 13. Aguilar expects nothing less than the Brazilian’s best.

“She’s very talented, and you’re going to have a lot of mixture [of the arts],” she said. “It’s going to be a great matchup.”

THIS & THAT

UFC 190 “Rousey vs. Correia” will be the 330th event the Ultimate Fighting Championship has staged in its history ... Women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey sports 14-, 16-, 25-, 25-, 39-, 49-, 54- and 66-second finishes among her 11 professional victories ... Bethe Correia’s nine opponents have a combined record of 56-45 ... Antonio Silva has held titles in the EliteXC, Cage Warriors Fighting Championship and Cage Rage organizations ... Five of Demian Maia’s six career losses have come by decision. Nate Marquardt remains the only man to finish the 2007 Abu Dhabi Combat Club Submission Wrestling World Championships gold medalist, having done the honors with a 21-second knockout at UFC 102 ... Rafael Cavalcante was one of six fighters to capture the Strikeforce light heavyweight crown, along with Bobby Southworth, Renato Sobral, Gegard Mousasi, Muhammed Lawal and Dan Henderson ... Nova Uniao rep Fernando Bruno has eight submission wins on his resume: three via rear-naked choke, two via guillotine choke and one each via arm-triangle choke, anaconda choke and heel hook ... Tristar Gym export Nordine Taleb is a native of Saint-Tropez, France, a small town of less than 6,000 people on the French Riviera ... Evolve MMA’s Leandro Issa won a Brazilian jiu-jitsu world championship in 2004, but two of his four MMA defeats have resulted in submission ... The three men to whom Reginaldo Vieira has lost -- Mario Israel, Rony Mariano Bezerra and Pedro Munhoz -- own a gaudy cumulative winning percentage of .868 ... When Clint Hester was born on Nov. 21, 1986, the top five songs on Billboard’s Hot 100 list were Boston’s “Amanda,” The Human League’s “Human,” Madonna’s “True Blue,” Eddie Money’s “Take Me Home Tonight” and Bon Jovi’s “You Give Love a Bad Name” ... All eight of Guido Cannetti’s bouts have concluded inside two rounds.

STATISTICALLY SPEAKING

Mauricio Rua ranks third on the UFC’s all-time list in knockdowns landed by a light heavyweight, per FightMetric. His nine knockdowns trail only Chuck Liddell (14) and Lyoto Machida (11). Rua also ranks fifth in significant strike accuracy (52.2 percent), sixth in significant strikes landed (499) and eighth in total strikes landed (800).

INSIDE THE VENUE

The HSBC Arena has played host to four Ultimate Fighting Championship events -- UFC 134, UFC 142, UFC 153 and UFC 163 -- with a total reported attendance of 55,322.