22 Facts About Murilo Rua

Murilo Rua is the older brother of former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Mauricio Rua.

Murilo Rua was the inaugural EliteXC Middleweight Champion and competed in Pride Fighting Championships.

Murilo Rua was scheduled to fight for the Meca Middleweight title vs Jorge Navalhada, but was injured, and could not fight for the title.

Murilo Rua lost to Ricardo Arona in a close battle of attrition, and Sergei Kharitonov in the Pride Total Elimination 2004, where he fought as a heavyweight, suffering a brutal knockout loss.

Murilo Rua lost the fight by split decision which was controversial.

Jackson was noticeably confused with the result and attempted to offer the winner's trophy to Murilo Rua following the decision.

Commentators such as Mauro Ranallo and Bas Rutten, who were present at the bout, have stated that they thought Murilo Rua had won the fight.

Murilo Rua fought three more times in Pride, defeating newcomer Murad Chunkaiev before dropping a lacklustre decision against top ranked Paulo Filho.

Nevertheless, Murilo Rua was selected as part of the Pride welterweight Grand Prix.

Murilo Rua then left Pride for a tenure with British MMA promotion Cage Rage in order to strengthen the tie between the two promotions.

Murilo Rua defeated Alex Reid via doctor stoppage before the newly created EliteXC organization purchased Cage Rage, therefore he fought for the vacant Elite XC middleweight at Strikeforce: Shamrock vs Baroni against Greg Jackson trained Joey Villasenor and recorded a second-round TKO, stopping Villasenor with strikes.

Murilo Rua rebounded with a victory over Muay Thai fighter and Cage Rage contender Xavier Foupa-Pokam at Cage Rage 24: Feel the pain.

Murilo Rua was initially scheduled to fight Phil Baroni on the May 31,2008, EliteXC card he suffered a minor foot injury which led him to fight on the June 14 card instead, where he recorded a dominant KO victory over undefeated Tony Bonello.

On October 4,2008, Murilo Rua was defeated by Benji Radach on a live CBS broadcast.

Murilo Rua made his Dream debut at Dream 8 against Riki Fukuda on April 5,2009.

Murilo Rua went on to lose against Riki by unanimous decision.

Murilo Rua was supposed to fight Falaniko Vitale at Shine Fights 3 on May 15,2010.

Murilo Rua was planning to participate in Dream 14, though that event being rescheduled led to other plans.

Murilo Rua beat Jeremy May on July 18,2010, at Impact Fighting Championships by submission via guillotine choke.

Murilo Rua is set to come out of retirement to fight a rematch against Pride FC vet and former World Extreme Cage Fighting middleweight champion Paulo Filho.

Murilo Rua lost to Filho by yet another controversial referee stoppage by Mario Yamasaki.

Filho landed a strong combination which rocked Murilo Rua, forcing him to shoot for a single leg take down.