Ricco Rodriguez

From CageWiki

1 Profile
2 Early Career and PRIDE
3 UFC
4 2004 - Present
5 Mixed martial arts record
6 Gallery
7 External links

Profile

Ricco "Suave" Rodriguez (born August 19, 1977) is an American professional mixed martial artist and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt.

He stands 6 ft. 4 in. (192 cm) tall and fights in the heavyweight division at approximately 250 lbs..

Rodriguez is a former UFC heavyweight champion and has also fought for PRIDE, IFL and EliteXC.

Early Career and PRIDE

Ricco Rodriguez began his professional mixed martial arts debut on March 25, 1999 as part of a one-night, four man tournament held by the Extreme Cage promotion. He knocked off Scott Adams via decision in his debut before going on to take the tournament with an armbar submission of Rocky Batastini.

After another armbar victory, Rodriguez suffered his first professional defeat when he was knocked out cold by big, Bobby Hoffman at a SuperBrawl event.

Rodriguez bounced back from the defeat to score two victories in his next two bouts over UFC veteran, Sam Adkins and Travis Fulton.

In June, 2000, Rodriguez was given a spot with the PRIDE Fighting Championships. He made his debut at PRIDE 9 and faced UFC veteran and Japanese fan favorite, Gary Goodridge. Using his decorated submission wrestling background, Rodriguez kept Goodridge on his back for the majority of the fight and earned himself a unanimous decision victory.

At PRIDE 10, Rodriguez smothered Takayuki Okada into submission in a mismatch. He followed that up with a unanimous decision win over John Marsh at [PRIDE 12].

Heading outside PRIDE in 2001, Rodriguez got the year underway with a kneebar submission win over Paul Buentello.

UFC

With a 9-1 record, Rodriguez was picked up by the UFC. He made his debut at UFC 32 against a young Andrei Arlovski. Rodriguez slowly wore the Belarussian down before finally stopping him in the third round.

At UFC 34, Rodriguez was matched up against former heavyweight title contender, Pete Williams. Rodriguez used his flattening top game to pound out Williams in 4:02 of round 2.

By the end of May, 2002, Rodriguez had made himself the top contender in the UFC heavyweight division as he had stretched his UFC streak to 4-0 with TKO stoppages of Jeff Monson (UFC 35) and Tsuyoshi Kohsaka (UFC 37).

When Josh Barnett defeated Randy Couture and then tested positive for steroids, the heavyweight belt was vacated. Rodriguez was selected to fight for the vacant title against two-time champion Couture at UFC 39. Couture controlled the first two and bit round with dominating takedowns and ground and pound. Rodriguez was not deterred though and launched a comeback midway through the third. He dominated the fourth round and then a few minutes into the fifth, Rodriguez landed a nasty elbow in Couture's eye that had Couture wincing in pain and verbally stopping the bout, awarding Rodriguez the UFC heavyweight championship.

Rodriguez's first defense came at UFC 41 five months later against Tim Sylvia. Rodriguez was the heavy favorite but turned up in a shape that didn't even resemble what he was in at UFC 39. He looked sloppy and paid the ultimate price as Sylvia flattened him with punches in just 3:09 of round 1 to take the title.

In August, 2003, Rodriguez was loaned out by the UFC to PRIDE to take on their former heavyweight champion, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira - a man he had submitted in a grappling match. Rodriguez controlled a lot of the bout from top control and was seen by many as the victor. The judges disagreed however and gave Nogueira the bout via unanimous decision.

At UFC 45, Rodriguez was matched up against fellow fallen star, Pedro Rizzo. Rodriguez was tentative to exchange on the feet and often resorted to flopping to guard - a position that Rizzo wanted no part of. This resulted in a very lacklustre fight that Rizzo was awarded via unanimous decision.

Following the bout, Rodriguez left the UFC.

2004 - Present

Taking over a year off from fighting, Rodriguez got back into action in December, 2004, as he snapped his three fight losing streak with a rear naked choke submission win over Mike Seal.

After another submission win - over Scott Junk - it was rumored the Rodriguez would be brought back to the UFC to face Andrei Arlovski for the heavyweight championship at UFC 53. That fell through though and Rodriguez continued to toil on the smaller show circuit.

Fighting seven more times in 2005, Rodriguez won six of those bouts, losing only to UFC and PRIDE veteran, Ron Waterman via unanimous decision.

2006 got off to a rocky start as "Suave" dropped a unanimous decision to Robert Beraun at a Rage in the Cage event.

He put that loss behind him to score four more victories in 2006, including a revenge TKO win over Waterman.

At the conclusion of Rodriguez's last bout of 2006 - against Imani Lee - he was suspended for six months by the California State Athletic Commission for testing postive for both marijuana and cocaine.

In his first bout after the suspension, Rodriguez stopped Lloyd Marshbanks with a TKO in just 3:11 of round 1.

A loss in his lone IFL appearance to Ben Rothwell followed before Rodriguez closed out 2007 with a head kick KO of Kevin Filal.

In January, 2008, Rodriguez was beamed into millions of American homes as part of Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew. Rodriguez came into the year claiming a renewed focus on the sport and his cleaned up lifestyle.

His first bout of 2008 came in the EliteXC promotion against Antonio Silva. On short notice Rodriguez fought the heavily touted Silva to a split decision loss that many people thought he won.

That lone EliteXC appearance was followed by Rodriguez signing on as one of eight competitors in the ill-fated YAMMA Pit Fighting's sanctioned one night, eight man tournament. With just one, five minute round as the length of the fight in the opening two rounds of the tournament, Rodriguez made it to the semis of the tournament as he defeated George Bush via decision and was then defeated by eventual tournament winner, Travie Wiuff via decision.

With YAMMA behind him, Rodriguez went 5-1 to close out 2008 that included a revenge win over Robert Beraun and a rematch defeat to Jeff Monson.

Rodriguez opened 2009 with a submission win over Doug Williams in June. That win was followed with a decision loss to Mario Rinaldi.

Fifteen days later, Rodriguez submitted John Brown with a rear naked choke to improve to 36-11.