Murilo Bustamante

From CageWiki

1 Profile
2 Early Career
3 UFC
4 PRIDE
5 Post-PRIDE Career
6 Mixed martial arts record
7 Gallery
8 External links

Profile

Murilo Bustamante (born July 30, 1966) is a Brazilian professional mixed martial artist and Brazilian jiu jitsu black belt under the legendary, Carlson Gracie.

He stands 6 ft. 2 in. (188 cm) tall and fights in the middleweight division (185 lbs.).

Bustamante is a former UFC middleweight champion and PRIDE welterweight (185 lbs.) title challenger. He is one of the founders of and is currently the leader of Brazilian Top Team.

Early Career

Murilo Bustamante made his professional mixed martial arts debut on September 26, 1991 at a Brazilian event entitled "Jiu Jitsu vs. Luta Livre". The classic style battle ended in success for Bustamante as he defeated his opponent, Marcelo Mendes via TKO due to injury at 4:42 of round 1.

Almost five years later, Bustamante was victorious in his second bout as he submitted Joe Charles with an arm triangle choke at another Brazilian event.

In November, 1996, Bustamante entered a one night, eight man tournament held by the US-based, Martial Arts Reality Superfighting organization. Bustamante defeated his first two opponents - Chris Haseman and Juan Mott - with punches to move into the final where he faced giant American wrecking machine, Tom Erikson. Erikson held at least a 100 lbs. weight advantage but was unable to do anything to Bustamante on the ground with the final of the tournament being ruled as a draw after 40 minutes.

Returning to Brazil in 1997, Bustamante scored to most notable victory of his early career as he knocked out Lion's Den fighter, Jerry Bohlander with a head kick in 5:38 of their bout.

UFC

With the victory over Bohlander, Bustamante made his UFC debut in Japan at UFC 25 in April of 2000. He faced Japanese professional wrestler, Yoji Anjo and made little work of him as he toyed with him for the first round before finally submitting him in the second with an arm triangle choke.

A victory in Pancrase over Sanae Kikuta followed before Bustamante returned to UFC action at UFC 33 where he faced Chuck Liddell. The Brazilian had no answer for Chuck's takedown defense and superior hands and thus wound up losing the first bout of his career via unanimous decision after three rounds.

Bustamante decided it was best to drop down to the middleweight division after the loss and was given an immediate title shot against middleweight champion, Dave Menne at UFC 35. A closely fought first stanza paved way for a blowout in the second as Bustamante dropped Menne with punches and then pounded him out on the ground to claim the title.

In the first defense of his title, Bustamante faced 2000 Olympic Greco Roman Silver Medalist, Matt Lindland at UFC 37 in May of 2002. After some controversy in the second round where Lindland allegedly tapped to a guillotine choke and then said he didn't, Lindland found himself submitting for real in the third round when he was again caught in a guillotine.

PRIDE

With a successful defense of his UFC title, Bustamante was out of action for a while before controversially deciding to turn his back on the UFC in favor of a contract with the Japan based, PRIDE Fighting Championships. Bustamante was stripped of his UFC title but made his PRIDE debut as a replacement for fellow member of Brazilian Top Team, Ricardo Arona in the opening round of PRIDE's 2003 Middleweight (205 lbs.) Grand Prix in August of 2003. He faced Quinton "Rampage" Jackson in the opening round and in a razor close bout Bustamante found himself on the losing end of a split decision.

Things went from bad to worse in his next bout as he faced Dan Henderson at PRIDE: Final Conflict 2003 and was knocked out in just 53 seconds. Bustamante protested the stoppage but to no avail as replays showed the referee made the correct decision.

Nine months later, Bustamante tried to notch his first PRIDE victory against Japanese judoka, Kazuhiro Nakamura at PRIDE: Final Conflict 2004. It was not to be again though as Nakamura controlled the majority of the bout to take out a unanimous decision win.

In April of 2005, Bustamante finally secured his first PRIDE win when he notched a unanimous decision win over Ryuta Sakurai at PRIDE: Bushido 6.

With that victory under his belt, Bustamante entered PRIDE's 2005 Welterweight Grand Prix five months later. He submitted his opening round opponent, Masanori Suda, with an armbar in 3:20 of round 1 at PRIDE: Bushido 7 to move into the semi finals.

The semis occurred later that night with Bustamante taking on Japanese fan favorite, Ikuhisa Minowa. Minowa was game but Bustamante's ground game became too much late in the first as the Brazilian pounded out Minowa to earn a spot in the final.

At PRIDE: Shockwave 2005 on New Year's Eve, 2005, Bustamante faced off against Dan Henderson in a rematch with the winner earning the tournament title and the vacant PRIDE welterweight championship. There was no first round blowout this time as both fighters traded position constantly for 15 minutes with Henderson squeaking a split decision victory.

Six months later, Bustamante dropped the sixth bout of his professional career as he found himself on the wrong side of a unanimous decision in the opening round of PRIDE's 2006 welterweight tournament against UFC veteran Amar Suloev at PRIDE: Bushido 11.

In his last bout for PRIDE, Bustamante defeated Dong Sik Yoon via unanimous decision at PRIDE: Bushido 13 to push his PRIDE record to 4-5

Post-PRIDE Career

Bustamante defeated Ryuta Sakurai in a rematch via knockout in April, 2007 before taking a fight against Olympic Judo Gold Medalist, Makoto Takimoto on New Year's Eve at an event put together by former PRIDE staff as a farewell to PRIDE fans. At the event - entitled Yarennoka! - Bustamante looked to have done enough against Takimoto after the 15 minutes but the judges thought otherwise as he suffered a split decision loss, dropping his record to 14-7-1.