Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou

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

Profile

Rameau Thierry "The African Assassin" Sokoudjou (born April 18, 1984) is a Cameroonian professional mixed martial arts who trains out of the Team Quest training facility.

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

He is a veteran of the PRIDE Fighting Championships and currently as light heavyweight for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).

Early Career

Sokoudjou made his professional mixed martial arts debut on the September 17, 2005 against Gary Padilla for the Total Combat promotion. Sokoudjou defeated Padilla via split decision.

In his next bout, Sokoudjou defeated Paul Weremecki via TKO 2.11 into the first round. He would suffer defeat in his next bout however against the heavy hands of Chuck Liddell team mate, Glover Teixeira. Sokoudjou was TKO'd by Teixeira 1.41 into the first round.

PRIDE

A little over four months after his defeat to Teixeira, Sokoudjou was given a call up to the PRIDE Fighting Championships.

He was slated to face highly ranked light heavyweight, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira at PRIDE's second ever US based show. Sokoudjou was a 16 to 1 underdog going into the fight but laid out Nogueira with a huge left hook 23 seconds into the first round.

The win over Nogueira brought Sokoudjou much fandom, and he was given a chance at the last ever PRIDE show, PRIDE 34 to prove his performance at PRIDE 33 was no flash in the pan. He faced off against another highly ranked light heavyweight in Ricardo Arona. The bout proved to be slightly different from the Nogueira bout as Sokoudjou laid Arona out with an uppercut at 1.59 of round 1.

UFC Career

After the collapse of PRIDE there was much speculation as to where Sokoudjou would ply his trade. EliteXC was said to be in the running with K-1 being the favourite, however Sokoudjou eventually signed with the premiere mixed martial arts organization in the world, the UFC.

In his first UFC bout, he was given the unenviable task of facing Lyoto Machida at UFC 79. Sokoudjou appeared to be over matched in the bout with Machida's puzzling style bewildering Sokoudjou. With a little under a minute left in the second round, Machida secured an arm triangle choke which forced Sokoudjou to tap at 4.20 of round 2.

Sokoudjou returned to the octagon at UFC 84 against fellow PRIDE veteran, Kazuhiro Nakamura. The bout appeared to show a return to Sokoudjou's confident ways as he knocked Nakamura down heavily at the end of round 1. Nakamura appeared to sustain a leg injury in the process of the knockdown and was unable to face the second round declaring Sokoudjou the victor via TKO.

At UFC 89, Sokoudjou faced another set back as he suffered a TKO defeat to Brazilian, Luis Cane. Sokoudjou won the first round with his powerful striking but looked to tire. In the second, Cane stalked Sokoudjou before dropping him with a left and then stopping him with many unanswered punches on the ground.