Marco Ruas

Marco Ruas
Born (1961-01-23) January 23, 1961
Other names The King of the Streets
Nationality Brazilian
Height 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)
Weight 210 lb (95 kg; 15 st)
Fighting out of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Team Ruas Vale Tudo
Rank      7th Degree Black Belt in Luta Livre under Roberto Leitão Sr.[1][2][3]
     1st Degree Black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu under Joe Moreira[4]
     1st Degree Black belt in Judo under Vinícius Ruas[5]
     1st Degree Black Belt in Taekwondo[6]
         Mestre rank / Red and White Cord in Capoeira under Mestre Camisa (José Tadeu Carneiro Cardoso)[7]
Mestre rank in Muay Thai (Confederação Brasileira de Muay Thai)[8]
Mixed martial arts record
Total 15
Wins 9
By knockout 1
By submission 8
Losses 4
By knockout 3
By decision 1
Draws 2
Other information
Mixed martial arts record from Sherdog

Marco Antônio de Lima Ruas (Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈmaʁku ˈʁuɐs]; born January 23, 1961) is a retired mixed martial arts fighter and instructor. Ruas was the UFC 7 Tournament Champion.

Biography

Ruas is the founder of Ruas Vale Tudo, a hybrid of Brazilian submission fighting and kickboxing. He also used to train in the art of capoeira with renowned Mestre Camisa in Rio de Janeiro at the Santa Luzia club, downtown Rio. He has instructed fighters such as Pedro Rizzo and Renato Sobral. He is also a black belt in Luta-Livre, who faced up a legendary quarrel against the brazilian jiu-jitsu fighters in the 80s and 90s. After the match against Pinduka, he started training in brazilian jiu-jitsu with Osvaldo Alves.[3] Later he trained Joe Moreira before his fight against the Russian boxer Yuri Vaulin. Seeing his good skills in grappling, Moreira gave him a black belt in brazilian jiu-jitsu and caused a commotion among his fellow Brazilians.[9] His instructors included Euclydes Hatem.

Ruas debuted in Ultimate Fighting Championship at the UFC 7 event. He firstly faced Larry Cureton, who outweighed him by 40 lbs, but Ruas submitted him with a heel hook after a methodical grapple. His next opponent was the judoka Remco Pardoel, who early tried a guillotine choke, but Ruas blocked it and grinded him with foot stomps. After a failed heel hook attempt, Ruas controlled Pardoel and attacked him with knees and punches on the ground, making him tap out. Ruas's final fight was against 6'8", 330 lb Paul Varelans, and he showed his muay thai skills by overwhelming Varlans with punch combos and repeated leg kicks. He also used again his characteristic foot stomps when Paul clinched him against the cage. At the end, Varelans could not take more kicks to his legs and fell to the ground, where Ruas pounded him until the referee stopped the fight, giving Ruas the victory of the tournament.

Thanks to his victory in UFC 7, Ruas was invited to the Ultimate Ultimate event. He defeated Keith Hackney by choke with ease, but his next opponente, Oleg Taktarov, made a tougher contest. Both fighters used a passive approach to the fight, with Ruas blocking Taktarov's takedown attempts and seizing all the opportunities to strike him, actually making him bleed profusely. However, the judges gave the decision win to Taktarov, and Ruas was eliminated from the tournament. This decision was met controversy, and Ruas and his cornermen appealed to the referee, but nothing came from it. A year later, he faced Taktarov again in Brazil, in a bout with no judges. The rematch ended in a draw, but Ruas was clearly the most dominanting fighter, and he shook hands with Oleg after the fight. He also won the World Vale Tudo Championship (WVC) Super Fight belt in the process. He returned briefly to UFC to fight former heavyweight champion Maurice Smith in UFC 21, but lost by TKO. Ruas suffered an injury in the first round and could not continue.

Personal life

Ruas is married and has three daughters.[10] Marco's first recorded fight was in 1984. Marco's nickname is "The King of the Streets" (Ruas actually means "streets" in Portuguese).

Marco lives in Laguna Niguel, California and coached the Southern California Condors in the International Fight League before the organization's collapse.

Instructor lineage

Luta Livre

Roberto Leitão Sr. → João Ricardo N. de Almeida → Marco Ruas[2]
Roberto Leitão Sr. → Marco Ruas[3]

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

Jigoro Kano → Mitsuyo Maeda → Carlos Gracie → Helio Gracie → Francisco Mansur → Joe Moreira → Marco Ruas[11]

Jigoro Kano → Mitsuyo Maeda → Carlos Gracie → Reyson Gracie → Osvaldo Alves → Marco Ruas[3]

Judo

Jigoro Kano → Soshihiro Satake → Vinícius Ruas → Marco Ruas[12]

Capoeira

Mestre Bimba → Mestre Camisa → Marco Ruas

Muay Thai

Nelio Naja → Luiz Alves → Marco Ruas[13][14]

Championships and Accomplishments

Mixed martial arts record

Res. Record Opponent Method Event Date Round Time Location Notes
Loss 9–4–2 Maurice Smith TKO (corner stoppage) IFL: Chicago May 19, 2007 4 3:43 Chicago, Illinois, United States
Win 9–3–2 Jason Lambert Submission (heel hook) Ultimate Pankration 1 November 11, 2001 1 0:56 Cabazon, California, United States
Loss 8–3–2 Maurice Smith TKO (corner stoppage) UFC 21 July 16, 1999 1 5:00 Cedar Rapids, Iowa, United States
Loss 8–2–2 Alexander Otsuka TKO (corner stoppage) Pride 4 October 11, 1998 2 10:00 Tokyo, Japan
Win 8–1–2 Gary Goodridge Submission (heel hook) Pride 2 March 15, 1998 1 9:09 Yokohama, Japan
Win 7–1–2 Patrick Smith Submission (heel hook) World Vale Tudo Championship 4 March 16, 1997 1 0:39 Brazil
Draw 6–1–2 Oleg Taktarov Draw World Vale Tudo Championship 2 November 10, 1996 1 31:12 Brazil
Win 6–1–1 Steve Jennum Submission (punches) World Vale Tudo Championship 1 August 14, 1996 1 1:44 Tokyo, Japan Won WVC Superfight Championship.[16]
Loss 5–1–1 Oleg Taktarov Decision Ultimate Ultimate 1995 December 16, 1995 1 18:00 Denver, Colorado, United States
Win 5–0–1 Keith Hackney Submission (rear naked choke) Ultimate Ultimate 1995 December 16, 1995 1 2:39 Denver, Colorado, United States
Win 4–0–1 Paul Varelans TKO (strikes) UFC 7 September 8, 1995 1 13:17 Buffalo, New York, United States Won UFC 7 Tournament.
Win 3–0–1 Remco Pardoel Submission (position) UFC 7 September 8, 1995 1 12:27 Buffalo, New York, United States
Win 2–0–1 Larry Cureton Submission (heel hook) UFC 7 September 8, 1995 1 3:23 Buffalo, New York, United States
Win 1–0–1 Francisco Francisco Submission (rear naked choke) Ruas Vale Tudo July 1, 1992 1 0:26 Manaus, Brazil
Draw 0–0–1 Fernando Pinduka Draw Jiu-Jitsu vs Luta Livre November 30, 1984 1 20:00 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Filmography

Year Title Role
1992 Kickboxer III: The Art of War Himself
2004 The Eliminator Salvador

References

  1. ↑ LUTA LIVRE Submission
  2. 1 2 "DSTRYRsg: Destroyer Submission Grappling and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu: KNOW YOUR DNA, THE LUTA LIVRE FAMILY TREE.". dstryrsg.com.
  3. 1 2 3 4 IMARA - Articoli - Ruas Marco
  4. ↑ "Joe Moreira". mmafighting.com.
  5. ↑ "Know Your Jiu-Jitsu Lineage, & Non Gracie Lineages". Bjj Eastern Europe.
  6. ↑ "Marco Ruas - TATAME". tatame.com.br.
  7. ↑ Marco Ruas - Biography - IMDb
  8. ↑ :CBMT: Grão Mestres, Mestres, Professores e Instrutores
  9. ↑ Joe Moreira
  10. ↑ Marco Ruas Biofile. mmamemories.com
  11. ↑ BJJ Heroes. "Joe Moreira". BJJ Heroes: the jiu jitsu encyclopedia.
  12. ↑ "Exclusive: Maeda Was Already Teaching Jiu-Jitsu In Rio 10 Years Before The Gracies". Bjj Eastern Europe.
  13. ↑ T.P. Grant. "MMA Origins: Brazilian Vale Tudo Evolves As Chute Boxe Emerges". Bloody Elbow.
  14. ↑ "The Development of Muay Thai: Brazil; Pt. 2". Write. Create. Innovate.
  15. ↑ UFC 45: Revolution. Fighttimes.com (2003-11-21). Retrieved on 2012-08-30.
  16. ↑ http://www.ruasmartialarts.com/pages/Fighters.html

External links

Preceded by
Oleg Taktarov		 UFC 7 Tournament winner
September 8, 1995 		Succeeded by
Dan Severn
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