UFC 7: Marco Ruas Demonstrates the Power of Leg Kicks

by Luke Thomas on Apr 10, 2009 11:54 AM EDT in MMA History

Yahoo continues it's UFC retrospective and this time Kevin Iole takes a look at what made UFC 7 unique: Marco Ruas not only used leg kicks to stop Paul Varlens, he did so before the true effectiveness of leg kicks were known in NHB:

Massive Paul Varelans, who is 6 feet, 8 inches and around 300 pounds, returns to the tournament competition after having been knocked out by Tank Abbott at UFC 6.

Varelans, whose nickname is "The Polar Bear," earned two quick submission victories to earn his way to the tournament final, where he would meet a highly regarded Brazilian.

This time, though, it was not Royce Gracie in the finals but rather Marco Ruas, who made his UFC debut.

Ruas, who would go on to become one of the top mixed martial arts fighters in history, also made it to the finals after a pair of submissions. He defeated Larry Cureton and Remco Pardoel to make his way to the finals, where he’d meet Varelans.

Ruas used a series of leg kicks to chop the much bigger man down. After a number of hard kicks, Varelans has difficulty standing and ultimately collapses to the canvas.

His well known pupil in Pedro Rizzo continued the leg kick tradition in MMA, although it's obviously a Thai boxing technique that wasn't invented by Ruas. I included a highlight of "The King of the Streets" after the jump. Long live Ruas Vale Tudo.

Photo by Gracie Mag.

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Comments

Great video. He was a double threat with his hands and with submissions in a time where that sort of multi dimensionality wasn’t very common. Plus he was quite an athlete.

Yeah, who got the final Death Blow? 'Cause I thought that Hawaiian guy had it comin' to him. - C. K.

by monkeyfightclub! on Apr 10, 2009 12:13 PM EDT reply actions

Mike Goldberg approves of this post.

by Chris Nelson on Apr 10, 2009 12:20 PM EDT reply actions

Polar Bear!

Varlans was always fun to watch because he lacked any skill or technique. Those promos on the PPV’s really built him up as some sort of manbeast though.

Check those kicks!

by missmanners on Apr 10, 2009 12:37 PM EDT reply actions

that guy got me hooked on MMA when i was a kid..

seeing a small guy like that run through opponents and chop down that big ass bear really turned me into a fan..

weoweoweo .deviantart .com

by Anton Tabuena on Apr 10, 2009 12:48 PM EDT reply actions

he was one of the first guys who brought muay thai to the limelight.

Gatti. Dekkers. Pele. Aoki. Kang. Vanderlei.
http://theworldsoldestsport.blogspot.com/

by theworldsoldestsport on Apr 10, 2009 12:49 PM EDT reply actions

This is why I’ve argued that Ruas predates Frank as the first “mixed martial artist” in the UFC.

by Simco on Apr 10, 2009 1:27 PM EDT reply actions

I can't even believe there's an argument

There was Tank (sadly) and The King of The Streets

by asa on Apr 10, 2009 1:29 PM EDT up reply actions

On the other hand...

by Flying Gogoplata on Apr 10, 2009 1:56 PM EDT reply actions 1 recs

but if that leg kick had landed

ooo

"the spirit of your average dumbass with more overblown rhetoric" OR "the self-appointed savior of MMA"

by Kid Nate on Apr 10, 2009 2:02 PM EDT up reply actions

lollll

by George Lucas on Apr 10, 2009 5:22 PM EDT up reply actions

The description of Marco Ruas as one of MMA’s alltime greats is hysterical.

by JSnowden on Apr 10, 2009 2:06 PM EDT reply actions

its only wrong in saying

“would go on to become”
By the time of UFC 7 Ruas had already established himself as a pioneer of MMA by combining muy thai with luta livre to develop a complete system.
His fights with top BJJ guys in the 1980s were probably his biggest wins.
By the time he was in the UFC he was already pushing 40.

"the spirit of your average dumbass with more overblown rhetoric" OR "the self-appointed savior of MMA"

by Kid Nate on Apr 10, 2009 2:10 PM EDT up reply actions

I hope, for my sake, that 34 isn’t pushing 40! Ruas’s legend is more the product of his own incessant hype more than anything else. He doesn’t have a documented track record in Brazil, and his fights in the early days of professional MMA show he was like a Brazilian Ken Shamrock.

‘Contributing Meaningful Dialogue to a Debate’ by Jonathan Snowden

It’s nice to be held to a high standard in a thread with posts like “but if that leg kick had landed” and “Mike Goldberg approves of this post.”

by JSnowden on Apr 10, 2009 3:01 PM EDT up reply actions

You’re the only one here shitting on Ruas, by shitting on Luke’s post, via the transitive property of shitting. Enjoy your island.

by Derek Suboticki on Apr 10, 2009 3:46 PM EDT up reply actions

No one was shititng on Luke’s post. Kevin Iole wrote the damn thing. Ruas was very good at beating up Paul Varelans. I would have loved to see him fight Akebono. How is that for positivity!

by JSnowden on Apr 10, 2009 4:07 PM EDT up reply actions

You hear those crickets? That’s where we told the people that agree with you to go. It’s quiet over there.

by Derek Suboticki on Apr 10, 2009 6:25 PM EDT up reply actions

People disagree that Ruas was good at beating up Paul Varelans? Or that the point we are arguing is actually Kevin Iole’s point? Your post is unclear.

People who run this very site have told me they don’t believe Ruas was an all-time great. I don’t really know anyone who does. Ruas was an interesting fighter and he had the right idea about how to be an effective fighter. I would agree that he was ahead of his time conceptually. There’s just the small problem of him losing to the only good guys he fought and refusing fights with anyone of consequence.

by JSnowden on Apr 10, 2009 6:38 PM EDT up reply actions

By the time of UFC 7 Ruas had already established himself as a pioneer of MMA by combining muy thai with luta livre to develop a complete system.
-Kid Nate

Hey look, someone that runs this site that thinks he was great.

by Derek Suboticki on Apr 10, 2009 7:06 PM EDT up reply actions

That says he was a pioneer with some good ideas. Just what I said. It doesn’t say he is an all-time great. How can he be? He never beat a significant fighter and his best student fell just short of being great too.

It’s not an insult. He was a fine fighter, just not someone that most people would consider in the all-time top 20. Or even 50.

by JSnowden on Apr 10, 2009 7:13 PM EDT up reply actions

he's shaving years off his age

He was no more 34 in 1995 than I am today.

"the spirit of your average dumbass with more overblown rhetoric" OR "the self-appointed savior of MMA"

by Kid Nate on Apr 10, 2009 4:03 PM EDT up reply actions

How does being a brazilian Ken Shamrock not make you one of the all time greats?

by George Lucas on Apr 10, 2009 5:24 PM EDT up reply actions

Ruas is similar to Ken in at least two ways:

1. They both trained fighters that were better than they were, passing on their knowledge to the next generation of fighters. This is a good thing when you compare Ruas to the legends of the sport.

2. Both were good at beating low level fighters and were popular because they had charisma and a chiseled physique. Neither could win the big one, both choked under pressure to lesser fighters in Japan.

Unfortunately, the thing that makes Ken Shamrock a legend is his ability to draw an audience, ability be damned. He’s one of the biggest draws in the sport’s history. This is where Ruas and Shamrock part ways, and it is part of the reason Ruas is a footnote in MMA history instead of demanding a paragraph or a chapter.

by JSnowden on Apr 10, 2009 6:42 PM EDT up reply actions

I find your assertion that Ruas is like a Brazilian Ken Shamrock an awful analogy because it only works in a couple of ways. For a comparison between fighters one really needs to have a one to one match in all elements of their career path, style, and favorite colors. ;-)