Brazil is not only a football country. Nowadays, this Latin American power has given the world a lot of great fighters performing in jujitsu and MMA. In a cohort of numerous warriors of mixed martial arts, a special place is occupied by a man named Mauricio Rua, whose biography will be presented in the article.
basic information
Future Pride and UFC champion was born in Curitiba on November 25, 1981. His father is a very successful businessman, and his mother is fond of running for marathons.
Mauricio Rua is not alone in the family, he has an older and younger brother, who, like himself, have chosen the path of MMA fighters. At the same time, the Mauricio brothers achieved very good results in sports, only two in professional sports, and one in amateur sports.
The hero of our article at the age of 15 ended up at the Chute Boxe Sports Academy, where he mastered the skills of mua-tai and jiu-jitsu. It is noteworthy that before becoming an outstanding fighter, the Brazilian worked part-time as a model, and his photographs were printed in many publications.
MMA debut
In November 2002, Mauricio Rua first entered the cell as a professional fighter. The debut turned out to be very successful for him, followed by two more spectacular victories.
In 2003, a budding talent was invited to the Denver International Fighting Championship. In this tournament, the fighter in the quarter finals won a bright victory, but in the next round he was mercilessly “strangled” by Renat Sobral.
Career in Japan
On October 5, 2003, Mauricio Rua held his first duel in the Land of the Rising Sun at the prestigious Pride Tournament. During the championship among the best fighters of the world of that time, the Brazilian was able to defeat such famous athletes as Quinton Jackson, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, Alistra Overeem and Ricardo Arona, but during the first defense of the title, Rua lost by technical knockout to Mark Colman. The fault was Mauricio’s hand fracture, which ultimately disabled him for long six months.
Having recovered from his injury, Rua gave a series of four victories, and one of the fighters defeated by him was former UFC champion Kevin Randallman. It is worth noting that Mauricio was on the first line of the world rankings of the best MMA fighters among light heavyweights at the time of completion of a career in Pride.
Transition to UFC
Finding himself in the strongest promotion of the planet, Roy in the first battle got himself Forrest Griffin's rivals. The Brazilian went to a duel with a leg injury, which only worsened during the bout. As a result, in the third round, the Brazilian missed a choke hold and lost.
In early 2009, Mauricio Rua entered the cage to fight his former abuser Mark Coleman. Despite the fact that the American at that time was already 44 years old, the Brazilian was able to knock him out only in the third round.
In the spring of the same year, Mauricio sent the former league champion Chuck Liddell left to sleep. This victory allowed Rua to return to the cohort of the best and even get the right to a title fight.
On the top
At the end of October 2009, “Shogun” held a championship match with his fellow countryman Lyoto Machida. The fight went through all the five rounds allotted, according to the results of which the current champion was the winner. We point out that this victory on points caused a lot of controversy. In particular, such fighters as John Jones, Quinton Jackson, Vitor Belfort and others considered this decision of the judges to be unfair. Although at the same time, according to the calculations of the CompuStrike portal, a native of Curitiba inflicted almost twice as large accurate and accented blows as Machida.
In May 2010, a rematch was held. This time, Brazilian fighter Mauricio Rua knocked out Lioto in the first five-minute period, making him the 11th UFC light heavyweight champion.
After this victory, the owner of the belt took a break for the necessary surgical interventions on his knee and held the first defense of the title only 10 months after his conquest.
In March 2011, Rua met with young and hungry to win challenger John Jones. The fight did not go the whole distance, and in the third round the American was able to force Mauricio to give up, although the referee did not notice this, and formally Jones's victory was recorded as a technical knockout from the blows.
Family status
Mauricio Rua loves fighting without rules, but nevertheless he took place as a family man. His charming wife is Renata Ribeiro, she works as a physiotherapist. In 2010, a daughter was born to the lovers, whom they named Maria.