Carmelo Marrero

From CageWiki

1 Profile
2 Early Career
3 Early UFC Career
4 IFL, WEC and Smaller Promotions
5 Return to the UFC
6 Mixed martial arts record
7 Gallery
8 External links

Profile

Carmelo "The Fury" Marrero (born January 26, 1981) is an American professional mixed martial artist who trains out of American Top Team in Coconut Creek, Florida.

He stands 6 ft. 2 in. tall and fights in the light heavyweight division (205 lbs.).

He has fought for a number of major promotions including the UFC, IFL and WEC. He currently fights as a light heavyweight for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).

Early Career

Carmelo Marrero made his professional mixed martial arts debut made his professional mixed martial arts debut at Reality Fighting 7 against Chris Dippolito on October 16, 2004. He submitted his opponent with a rear naked choke at 1:02 of round 1.

He followed that victory with two unanimous decision wins in a row over Chris Volo and future UFC competitor, Sherman Pendergarst respectively.

In March, 2006, Marrero notched up another submission win and then scored a TKO over Petrus Walker three months later.

Early UFC Career

With an unblemished 5-0 record, Marrero signed a contract with the UFC and agreed to face French heavyweight, Cheick Kongo at UFC 64 in October of 2006. Marrero was at long odds to do anything to Kongo but he went out and used his quality wrestling to expose Kongo's deficiencies in both wrestling and jiu jitsu. The two fighters traded position for three rounds with Marrero getting the better of it according to 2 out of 3 judges who awarded him the split decision victory.

Marrero was called back quickly as he was slated to face Gabriel Gonzaga at UFC 66 in December. Marrero was dwarfed by the much larger Gonzaga and it showed as Gonzaga threw Marrero to the mat and quickly worked an armbar, forcing the tap at 3:22 of round 1.

Taking note of his smaller frame compared to the larger heavyweights, Marrero decided to drop a weight class to the light heavyweight division. In his first fight in the division he faced Wilson Gouveia at UFC 71. Things did not go well for Marrero as he was pummeled with leg kicks before being tapped with a guillotine choke.

IFL, WEC and Smaller Promotions

The loss to Gouveia had the UFC handing Marrero his walking papers. In an effort to build his name back up, Marrero headed to the smaller shows to rack up some wins.

He began his comeback with a TKO over Rafael Real at a WCO event in November of 2007.

That was followed by a No Contest in an IFL bout against future UFC competitor, Mike Ciesnoelvicz.

Marrero picked up two submission victories in the C3 promotion before returning under the ZUFFA banner in the form of World Extreme Cagefighting. He made his WEC debut at WEC 36 against Steve Steinbeiss who was a late replacement for Alex Schoenauer. After three rounds, Marrero picked up the split decision victory and fourth win from four completed fights.

Return to the UFC

Following ZUFFA's decision to dissolve the WEC's light heavyweight and middleweight divisions into the UFC, Marrero was officially transferred over to the UFC roster.

Marrero will make his return to UFC competition on the main card of UFC Fight Night 18 against TUF 8 light heavyweight winner, Ryan Bader.