Marco Ruas

Marco Antônio de Lima Ruas (born 23 January 1961) is a Brazilian former mixed martial arts fighter, submission wrestler, kickboxer and instructor.

Ruas was the UFC 7 Tournament Champion, and also competed for the World Vale Tudo Championship (WVC), PRIDE Fighting Championships and the International Fight League, where he head-coached the Southern California Condors.

Ruas was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1961.

He started his career training Boxing, Taekwondo, Judo, and Capoeira, the latter with renowned José Tadeu Carneiro Cardoso in Rio de Janeiro at the Santa Luzia club, downtown Rio.

However, his primary martial arts eventually became Luta Livre, which he trained under Roberto Leitão Sr., and Muay Thai, which he trained under Luiz Alves, a student of Nélio "Naja" Borges, the man who introduced Thai boxing to Brazil.

As a black belt in Luta Livre, who faced up a legendary quarrel against the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu fighters in the 1980s and 1990s.

Ruas is a pioneer of Mixed martial arts, having fought in a high-profile Vale Tudo bout in 1984, and later winning the UFC 7 tournament in 1995, begin the second Brazilian UFC champion and fourth overall of the organization.

Although he was billed as a representative of Luta Livre and thus a high-level submission grappler, he was an equally capable and skilled Muay Thai striker with experience in Capoeira, Boxing, and Taekwondo.

He was able to synthesize both grappling and striking into one style, known for begin one of the first proponents of cross-training to compete in mixed martial arts events, and is considered one of the very first well-rounded fighters and true "mixed martial artist".

This is represented by his famous quote after winning his fight in WVC 4: "If you grapple me, I punch and kick you. If you punch and kick me, I grapple you. There's no way out."

Ruas transformed his style in his own hybrid martial art which he called "Ruas Vale Tudo".

In some later events, his fighting style was simply billed as "Vale Tudo".

In 1984, he participated of the Noite das Artes Marciais ("Night of the Martial Arts") event, fought by representatives of BJJ against representatives of Muay Thai, Kung Fu, Kickboxing and Luta Livre.

Ruas represented muay Thai fighting a match against BJJ representative Fernando Pinduka, he used his Luta Livre skills to counter Pinduka's grappling and the match went to draw.

After the match against Pinduka, he started training in Brazilian jiu-jitsu with Osvaldo Alves.

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 and controversy among his fellow Brazilians, due the rivalry between the two martial arts.

His instructors included Euclydes Hatem.

Eventually, Ruas became famous among the Brazilian martial arts circle and one of the most regarded non-BJJ fighters in Brazil due his philosophy of Cross-Training and in synthesizing all martial arts he knew for both Vale Tudo contests and self-defense into a new hybrid martial art he dubbed "Ruas Vale Tudo".

However, this philosophy also caused controversy among Brazilian fighters and he was labelled as a Creonte by not only BJJ but also by Luta Livre fighters.

In 1991 he was going to participate in Desafio - Jiu Jitsu vs Luta Livre, an event fought as a challenge between fighters from the two martial arts, Ruas was cast to fight BJJ representative Amaury Bitetti but cancelled his participation and Bitetti was declared winner by W.O.

Instead, in 1992 he promoted his own event in Manaus where he defeated Francisco Borges with a rear naked choke.

Eventually he attracted the attention of Brazilian manager and fight promoter Frederico Lapenda and was able to get the 34-year-old fighter into the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

Ruas debuted in the Ultimate Fighting Championship at the UFC 7 event in 1995.

At the event, he was billed representing "Vale Tudo".

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 Varelans 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 with controversy, and Ruas and his cornermen appealed to the referee, but nothing came from it.

In 1996 he joined the nascent World Vale Tudo Championship (WVC) organized by his manager Frederico Lapenda, fighting in the superfight against UFC 3 Tournament Champion Steve Jennum in Tokyo, Japan.

He won easily with a submission to punches and won the WVC Superfight belt.

Almost a year after his last UFC fight, he faced Taktarov again in Brazil, in a bout with no judges.

The rematch ended in a draw, but Ruas was clearly the most dominating fighter, and he shook hands with Oleg after the fight.

He kept the WVC Superfight belt in the process.

He finished his run in the organization with his last superfight against UFC 2 finalist Patrick Smith in the WVC 4 event, easily winning with a heel hook.