Ricardo Almeida

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1 Profile
2 MMA Debut and Early MMA Career
3 Pancrase
4 Retirement
5 UFC Return
6 Mixed martial arts record
7 Gallery
8 External links

Profile

Ricardo "Cachorrao" Almeida (born November 29, 1976) is a Brazilian American professional mixed martial artist and a third degree Brazilian jiu jitsu black belt under Renzo Gracie.

He stands 5 ft. 11 in. tall and fights in the middleweight division (185 lbs.).

In submission grappling he is a 4x Brazilian national champion, 1999 Pan American Champion and 2x Silver Medalist at the ADCC Submission Wrestling World Championships. He is also the former middleweight King of Pancrase and currently fights as a middleweight for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).

His nickname "Cachorrao" means "Big Dog" in Portugese.

MMA Debut and Early MMA Career

Ricard Almeida made his professional mixed martial arts debut at PRIDE 12 against Akiro Shoji on December 9, 2000. He defeated Shoji by decision after two rounds.

Almeida was quickly thrown into the deep end in his MMA career as he was immediately signed to a contract with the UFC. He made his UFC debut at UFC 31 against Matt Lindland. Almeida seemed to have trouble grasping the rule changes in the UFC as he committed a number of different fouls throughout the contest, eventually being disqualifed by referee, Mario Yamasaki at 4:21 of round 3.

A little over four months later at UFC 33, Almeida bounced back from his first loss as he showed off his sublime jiu jitsu as he picked up a triangle choke submission victory over Eugene Jackson in the first round.

In January of 2002, Almeida saw his record leveled at 2-2 as he went down in a TKO loss to Andrei Semenov at UFC 35.

Pancrase

Following the Semenov loss, Almeida left the UFC for the Japanese based, Pancrase promotion. He kicked off his Pancrase career at Pancrase: Spirit 8 in November of 2002, picking up a rear naked choke victory over Osami Shibuya.

He followed that submission victory with three decision victories over notable Japanese fighters, Ikuhisa Minowa, Yuki Sasaki and future PRIDE welterweight grand prix winner, Kazuo Misaki.

Almeida's impressive run in Pancrase earned him a shot at the middleweight King of Pancrase title held by Nate Marquardt. In a controversial fight, Almeida caught Marquardt in a guillotine choke. Marquardt tapped out but the referee did not seperate the fighters immediately and Marquardt took offense to Almeida holding onto the choke and once the choke was broken he planted a punch on Almeida's face. A mid-ring scuffle ensued but eventually subsided. Almeida was crowned the middleweight King of Pancrase and Marquardt was relegated to contender status.

Retirement

Almeida vacated his middleweight King of Pancrase title to fight at PRIDE: Bushido 3 where he scored a unanimous decision over Ryo Chonan.

After the Chonan victory, Almeida shocked the MMA community with a decision to retire from professional mixed martial arts with the reason being he wanted to focus on his jiu jitsu school in Hamilton, New Jersey.

UFC Return

Almeida spent three years in retirement until the urge to return became too strong. He originally was going to make his return to MMA competition on a Palace Fighting Championships card but after the card was cancelled, he was instead signed to a contract with the UFC.

Almeida was matched up against Alan Belcher for UFC 81 in February of 2008. Belcher had to pull out of the fight due to illness close to the bout and was instead replaced with UFC newbie, Rob Yundt. Almeida made his comeback a quick one as he scored a quick takedown on Yundt which he then quickly turned into a guillotine choke. Yundt tried to slam his way out of it but only managed to do a forward flip that ended with Almeida in mount with guillotine still locked on. Yundt quickly tapped earning Almeida the submission victory.

At UFC 86 in July of 2008, Almeida was given the job of co-main event in his fight with Patrick Cote. The bout was dubbed as No.1 contender match-up for a shot at the UFC middleweight title held by Anderson Silva. In a slow paced bout, Almeida scored a takedown in the first round and controlled most of the action. The second round was punctuated by Cote's takedown defense and superior striking. The third round was close with Cote's striking carrying most of the round, however Almeida scored a takedown late in the round. The offical scores came in as a split decision victory for Cote.

Originally set to return at UFC 90 against Matt Horwich, an injury to Almeida forced his removal from that bout. Almeida will now make his return at UFC Fight Night 18 against the same opponent, Matt Horwich in April, 2009.