Bad management is why he’s not a household name in the world of mixed martial arts. Bad management is why he never really sold a lot of UFC tickets.
Of course, he could have done both of those things if he had a manager who believed in him.
The mixed martial artist in question is the great Marco Ruas. He had just 15 professional fights and all but one occurred after his 30th birthday.
“I feel mad for that. I wanted to fight more fights.”
His professional record is 9-4-2. His was 4-2 in six UFC bouts.
His shining moment occurred in 1995 when he won the tournament competed at UFC 7: The Brawl in Buffalo. He did so by defeating Larry Cureton, Remco Pardoel, and Paul Varelans.
Ruas made Cureton and Pardoel tap out. He then captured the tournament title with a TKO of Varelans. Varelans is seven inches taller than the 6’1” Ruas and outweighed him by more than a hundred pounds.
In December, at Ultimate Ultimate 1995, Ruas defeated Keith Hackney. At the same event, he lost to Oleg Taktarov via a controversial decision. The two fought nearly a year later but the match ended in a draw.
From there, Ruas had six more pro fights. He won half of them. Two of his three losses occurred to Maurice Smith, once at UFC 21 in July of 1999 and then again at an IFL event in 2007. During the last fight, Ruas was 46.
Born in Rio de Janeiro, Ruas is the founder of Ruas Vale Tudo, a mix of kickboxing and Brazilian submission fighting. While he was admired for his awesome kicking skills, Ruas brought a well-rounded style to MMA during an era when everyone was concentrating on jiu-jitsu.
“I trained everything, a long time before everybody. I trained judo, I trained karate, I trained capoeira, luta livre, jiu-jitsu. I trained everything.”
His professional record may not be as robust as others, but if you include his street fights, estimated to be somewhere between 300 and 1,000 contests, his resume easily enters legendary status.
Regardless of the number, he didn’t just fight on the streets of Rio. He won.
“In the streets, I’m undefeated. Nobody beat me.”
That leads us to his nickname, “King of the Streets.” It’s a clever play on words as Ruas means “streets” in Portuguese, the official language of Brazil.
Quotes taken from MMA Junkie article: “Pioneer Marco Ruas looks back on contribution to MMA, wishes he'd had more UFC fights.” published 12/26/16
Photo Credit: Doug Churchill on location at Emily studio on the Street Scene set. Courtesy of Flickr. Believed to be in the public domain.
