Following a knockout loss last weekend in London, England, former PRIDE veteran, and the first ever crowned EliteXC middleweight champ, Murilo ‘Ninja’ Rua (20-12-1) decided to hang up his gloves, retiring as a professional mixed martial artist.
Rua faced the UK’s Tom ‘Kong’ Watson in the main event of BAMMA 6, in a middleweight title bout. ‘Ninja’ was downed in the third round by Watson after taking a kick to the head, it was his second straight loss. That night, Rua took to Twitter (@ninja_rua) to announce his retirement.
The former PRIDE vet recently was recently asked by Sherdog.com to explain his reasons for retiring at this time.
“I was already giving a lot of thought for a good while, along with my family and my manager, about the right time to quit, and my love for MMA always spoke louder, so I always wanted to try one more time. The opportunity to try to win a belt like BAMMA’s lightened up the will to close my career well, but time goes on for everybody. I have been on this road for a long time, and I already went into this fight with my mind set that I would stop either after this fight or after the next…
“I realized talking to those around me — my family and my manager, who is, in reality, my friend before anything else — that I don’t need to drop MMA just because I stop fighting. I can still work with what I love. Now it’s time to take care of my kids, enjoy life with my wife and keep bringing MMA to the world with my seminars, classes and fighters.”
‘Ninja’, who is the older brother of former UFC champion Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua, pro career began back in May of 2000 has fought such notable names as Dan Henderson, Kevin Randleman, Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson, Robbie Lawler, and Sergei Kharitonov. He became the first EliteXC middleweight champion after defeating Joey Villasenor back in June of 2007 at the co-promoted Strikeforce: Shamrock vs. Baroni event.