Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira isn't contemplating retirement

Legendary heavyweight Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira is firmly entrenched in the twilight of his career.

The former PRIDE champion made his reputation on heart and skill and an impossibly strong, iron-laden chin, and unfortunately, it seems like only the heart remains.

"Big Nog" is 2-4 since 2010, losing via brutal knockout in two of the bouts, and submission in the other two. His submission loss to Frank Mir at UFC 140 resulted in a gruesome broken arm when Nogueira didn't tap while trapped in a deep Kimura.

Despite this slide - and the insistence of UFC president Dana White - Nogueira isn't contemplating retirement.

"I know Dana White and he is thinking of his fighters. He knows I had a lot of injuries before, my arm was broken a couple of years ago when I fought. A lot of things happened," Nogueira said in Brazil on Wednesday, according to FOX Sports' Damon Martin. "I didn't show up good when I fought in Abu Dhabi against Roy Nelson. It was a tough knockout but I came back to training and I asked him to fight again.

"I promised I was going to make an exciting match so I will."

Instead, Nogueira, who faces Stefan Struve at UFC 190 on Saturday, cites the recent career resurgences of contemporaries like Mir and Andrei Arlovski as a reason not to hang up his four ounce gloves.

"I'm not thinking about that right now," Nogueira said about his potential retirement. "A lot of fighters who lost three, four fights before are coming back. A lot of guys from my same generation just came back and are doing better. So I'll try to keep it going on. I'm training good and I'm in shape. I still want to fight."