What UFC fighters have a street fighting background?

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I am not even sure TS knew there was a fighter who was the King of the Streets.

TS is a can.
 
No not that i know of..
i think once the choke video was out and the wider community was aware of rickson and marco, If they had fought it would have been huge in japan for dam sure.

and even though im a gracie practitioner, marco ruas would have lit rickson up..

I remember Jeff Blatnik talking about it somewhere during Ruas’ UFC debut.

I was training in the mid 90’s, back when Dan Miragliotta was my instructor and he was close with Renzo. Both he and Renzo were watching Marco, but as impressive as he was, Renzo told Dan that Ruas’ BJJ was at the level of a blue belt. He told Dan to watch his hips and positioning.

Since only wrestlers were defending the takedown with regularity during that time period, I think odds are Rickson gets a hold of him and subs him in a high profile fight.
 
Here’s an old school story:


Randy Couture and Dan Henderson vs five bouncers, in pre-mma days 1995:

“In 1995, Randy and Henderson cleaned house on five bouncers in Buckhead (ATL)--it was a brutal bloodbath and took about 90 seconds, max. I was with them, and believe me when I tell you it was total carnage. It started when Randy pushed Dan into a car--just horseplay--outside a bar, and the doormen started talking ****. One of them grabbed a baseball bat and was acting like he was going to swing. So, Randy and Dan squared up.

After a few moments of banter--Hendo told the dude he was going to shove the bat up his ass--Randy suddenly lunged at the dude with the bat, who immediately tucked tail and retreated into the bar with Randy on his heels. Henderson and I remained outside and Dan literally mowed through two of the four remaining bouncers--a fourth friend and I pitched on the last two. One of the guys Dan lit up tried to run away, and Dan would let him go for a few steps, and then beat him down. This lasted for about a block--I know, because I had to track him down so we could elude the police, and was literally a trail of blood on the street. Then, when I went to get Randy out of the bar, I saw that he had destroyed the place by repeatedly picking the bouncer up and tossing him into tables and across the bar.

Dan had just picked up some chick 20 minutes earlier, and she was just horrified, but ended up running from the police with us. We tossed her over chain link fences and brick walls, and by the time we got to our car, her dress was in tatters and she was just livid. Keep in mind, this was two years before either guy fought in MMA. I should also point out that I've known Dan for nearly 20 years and Randy almost 15, and it's the only time I've ever seen either guy in a street fight. The dude with the bat just set them off.

Best part is, Randy was interviewing to be the head coach for the U.S. Greco team, and he was out to dinner with the executives the following night. In the middle of dinner, a cop shows up at his table with the manager, and they say that Randy has to leave. When the USA Wrestling attorney asks why, they said that it was because Randy and some buddies had destroyed the place the night before and assaulted their security staff. Turns out it was the same place! Luckily, they just booted Randy and no charges were filed. 100% true.

Aaron Crecy
Clinch Gear“
 
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