by Steven Marrocco on Jun 02, 2010 at 7:05 pm ET

You can thank Jason Brilz's father, Shawn, for the fight his son put up at UFC 114.

If the pair hadn't agreed to participate in a triathlon, Brilz told MMAjunkie.com Radio (www.mmajunkie.com/radio) he probably would have turned into a "fat blob" waddling the streets of Omaha. He doesn't usually like to get in shape when sun is plentiful.

But a resolution to swim, bike, run and "look good for one summer" did the job. Even though he came up short this past Saturday against Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, Brilz (18-3 MMA, 3-2 UFC) considers the fight a "win-win" performance.

"That's what I'm looking at," Brilz said today. "It was a lot of fun, actually."

Brilz lost the fight via split decision, but fans at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas declared him the victor by generously booing the judges' call. Most observers agree he won the second round while Nogueira (19-3 MMA, 2-0 UFC) won the third; the action-light first round was close.

Brilz, a full-time firefighter and assistant wrestling coach at the University of Nebraska-Omaha, was a sizable underdog going into the event.

"You leave it up to the judges, and you're going to have many different opinions, and that's sort of the feedback," said Brilz, whose UFC record now stands at 3-2.

Brilz said he hasn't yet seen the fight yet but hopes to watch it tonight. Some details he remembers well: attacking the Brazilian's legs with kicks, applying a guillotine choke and getting caught in one. But he's still hazy on others, such as the end of the second round where he had "Little Nog" in danger with a punch combination.

At the UFC 114 post-event press conference, UFC president Dana White said he thought Brilz had the fight won at that point and that he disagreed with the judges' decision.

"I'm thinking: I really wish I would have remembered that," Brilz said.

Brilz took the bout on three-weeks' notice when former champion Forrest Griffin injured his shoulder and was unable to face Nogueira. After Brilz accepted the matchup, UFC matchmaker Joe Silva told him that win, lose or draw, he would not be cut from the UFC.

"That never really crept into the equation," Brilz said.

The Brazilian was heavily hyped when he signed with the UFC this past August and quickly dispatched the hard-slugging Luiz Cane three months later at UFC 106. But with little to lose, Brilz surprised fans by frustrating Nogueira in striking exchanges and in scrambles on the mat.

Brilz was unimpressed when he experienced Nogueira's punching power in the first round.

"I was like, 'OK, that wasn't that bad,'" Brilz said. "Let's go out here and see what I can do to him now."

The two fought fiercely on the mat as the bout drew to a close. Brilz said he was calmed by his trainers' advice to fight the position and not the man.

"[Nogueira is] more technical and better at single disciplines," Brilz said. "But I think since it was a fight, I [could] bring everything in there and mess up his timing.

"I think I did that pretty good."

The UFC awarded Brilz a $65,000 "Fight of the Night" bonus for his gutsy performance. He allowed himself a beer or three on the golf course yesterday; he earned it.

After 10 years of struggling to get noticed, Brilz is hopeful that he's opened some eyes. There were many humble years before he got to Nogueira.

"When I first started, I was making 100 bucks," Brilz said. "Actually, I made 50 bucks, and then I got my arm broke, so [the promoter] gave me another 50 bucks."

He said a fight on the UFC's top-secret card planned for January 2011 in Afghanistan would be "perfect." In the meantime, there should be plenty of sun left after he runs the Door Country Triathlon in July. Expect to see some waddling.