Ricco Rodriguez

Ricco "Suave" Rodriguez (born August 19, 1977) is an American mixed martial artist of Puerto Rican and Mexican descent. He is the former Ultimate Fighting Championship heavyweight champion. He has also competed in PRIDE Fighting Championship and King of the Cage.

Biography

Rodriguez's martial arts background is in wrestling and he was one of the most highly decorated high school wrestlers in the state of New York. He later moved to California and began training in the art of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu with Rigan and Jean Jacques Machado, going on to win a number of jiu-jitsu tournaments and the gold medal at the ADCC Submission Wrestling World Championship. With his jiu-jitsu and wrestling background, Rodriguez then embarked on a career in mixed martial arts.

Mixed martial arts career

Rodriguez's MMA career began in 1999 with a string of wins before losing to Bobby Hoffman at the Superbrawl 13 event in Hawaii that was notable for also featuring early fights in the careers of Josh Barnett and Heath Herring. Training with Mark Kerr and Bas Rutten, he was featured in the documentary "The Smashing Machine: The Life and Times of Mark Kerr."

Moving to Japan, he trained at the Takada Dojo and competed in PRIDE Fighting Championship. He can be seen cornering teammates Dajiro Matsui and Nobuhiko Takada in their PRIDE and KOTC bouts. Despite earning success in PRIDE with wins against John Marsh, Takayuki Okada and Gary Goodridge, Rodriguez was unhappy with his status and earnings and decided to return to the United States.

UFC

After defeating Paul Buentello by kneebar, Rodriguez was invited to compete in UFC 32 against Andrei Arlovski and promptly won that match by TKO. He was scheduled to fight Lion’s Den fighter Pete Williams at UFC 33, but the fight was postponed until UFC 34 due to an injury suffered by Williams during training.

Rodriguez went on to beat Williams, Jeff Monson (UFC 35) and Tsuyoshi Kohsaka (UFC 37) to earn a title shot against heavyweight champion Randy Couture at UFC 39. After clearly losing the first two rounds and probably losing a somewhat closer third round, Rodriguez was able to use his greater size to ground-and-pound a victory in the final two rounds, resulting in a stoppage by verbal tapout with two minutes left in the fifth round, winning the UFC heavyweight title. He had been training with Team Punishment, where his strategy was improved by Tito Ortiz. In his first title defense, he was knocked out by Tim Sylvia in the first round, losing the belt.

After this loss, he was dispatched to represent the UFC in PRIDE for a matchup between the former PRIDE champion Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira (whom he had previously beaten in a submission grappling match). Despite throwing several flying knees and taking down Nogueira several times, he lost the fight. Nogueira's multiple submission attempts and active attack were judged to be the determining factor in the match. Due to the controversy of this decision, Matt Hume issued an explanation of the judging of the fight officially sanctioned by the PRIDE Rules Director, Yuji Shimata. It was intended to clear up confusion amongst fans, as the American broadcast commentators as well as guest commentator Mark Coleman (a former training partner of Rodriguez) were unfamiliar with the rules and believed that Rodriguez had won.

Returning to the UFC for UFC 45, he lost the last fight of his contract to Pedro Rizzo by decision after being punished with Rizzo's trademark leg kicks.

Post-UFC

Following the end of his UFC contract, he has fought for a number of smaller promotions such as the WFA and WEC and has gained a noticeable amount of weight since his UFC days, at one stage weighing as heavy as 350 lb.

On 22 July 2006, in a rematch of their August 2005 bout in the WEC, he avenged a loss to Ron Waterman at WFA: King of the Streets. He fought as a superheavyweight, weighing in at around 300 lb, and was quoted as saying "I'm fat but I still got skills."[1]

Rodriguez made his professional boxing debut on 12 October 2006, beating 19 year old Cruiserweight Brandon Baker by KO.

Following his win against Imani Lee on November 17th 2006, Rodriguez was put under indefinite suspension by the California State Athletic Commission.[2] The Wrestling Observer Newsletter reported that Rodriguez had tested positive for both marijuana and cocaine after his victory over Lee and was subsequently given a six month suspension for the offenses. [3]

On the July 27, 2007 Ricco Rodriguez, in his first fight after his suspension, defeated Lloyd Marshbanks by first round TKO at an event entitled MMAX 13 - MMA Xtreme 13, which was held in Puebla, Mexico.

He appeared as part of Human Weapon, representing MMA. He faced Bill Duff, winning by decision.

He fought Ben Rothwell at the International Fight League championship finals and lost by unanimous decision.

He received a split decision loss to Antonio Silva at EliteXC: Street Certified on February 16th, 2008.

Rodriguez last fought on April 11, 2008 in the YAMMA Pit Fighting one-night heavyweight tournament as a late replacement. He defeated George Bush in the first round by unanimous decision, but was beaten by eventual champion Travis Wiuff in the semi-finals by unanimous decision.

He is currently scheduled to fight Jeff Monson in a rematch on June 21st for the inaugural Godz of War show.[4]

Personal life

Rodriguez has a daughter who he raised for two years as a single father. He also has a son.

On March 13, 2008, VH1 aired a 90-minute reunion show with the cast of Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew. Ricco announced that he has been completely clean since the show. He completed a 90-day program and is back at work in the fighting industry to support his family.

Mixed martial arts record

Professional record breakdown

37 matches	28 wins	9 losses
By knockout	7	2
By submission	15	0
By decision	6	7

External links

• Professional MMA record for Ricco Rodriguez from Sherdog
• Boxing record for Ricco Rodriguez from BoxRec (registration required)