Mike Ricci - MMA

Mike Ricci is a Canadian mixed martial artist who competed for the Ultimate Fighting Championship and has also fought in Bellator Fighting Championships. Fighting out of Montreal Quebec, Canada, Ricci is trained in the disciplines of kick-boxing and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and has a pretty technical style of fighting.

A little known fact about him is that he was not always destined for the MMA world. In fact, if it had not been for mixed martial arts, Ricci, as acknowledged by him, would have been mixed up with the wrong sort of crowd, doing the wrong sort of things. Fortunately for Ricci, who had some martial arts experience to his credit and was interested in learning about self-defense, was introduced to mixed martial arts at a gym in Saint-Constant.

As it turned out, a young fighter named Georges St-Pierre, who was preparing for a match against Jason “Mayhem” Miller at the time, was waiting for Ricci at the off-island suburb of Montreal. St-Pierre was an emerging star at this point, having only one blemish on his record—a first-round submission loss to Matt Hughes in a title fight at UFC 50. Not surprisingly, Ricci quickly learned that mixed martial arts wasn’t as easy as he perhaps thought it would be.

Despite Ricci’s lopsided learning experience at the hands of St-Pierre, arguably the greatest mixed martial artist of all time, he insisted that he was immediately hooked on the sport. In retrospect, though, Ricci isn’t exactly sure why. He says that MMA fighting is something that chooses you and not the other way around. Ricci’s parents and friends thought he was crazy for wanting to pursue mixed martial arts. Many already involved in the sport insisted that Ricci, at 20, was too old to start a serious run in the highly competitive sport.

Ricci nevertheless took his best shot, spending the next year or so training at a few different gyms and picking up bits and pieces of information from grappling books. About a year after Ricci first came into contact with St-Pierre, the young martial artist was introduced to Firas Zahabi, the head coach at Montreal's renowned Tristar Gym. Within a few months, Ricci was in the ring, competing under the Zahabi banner and hoping to turn his passion for the sport into a career. Ricci, who still trains at the Tristar Gym, isn’t sure where he would be without the influence of St-Pierre and Zahabi. But under the guidance of the pair, Ricci, who describes his style as technical above all else, has established himself as one Canada’s most promising young lightweight contenders.

Since Ricci made his professional debut in 2008—a TKO victory in Montreal—the man they call “The Martian” has claimed victory in six of eight matches, including a win over Strikeforce vet Jordan Mein, and has fought for the Bellator Fighting Championships promotion. He did a brief stint in UFC, from December, 2012 and lasted till the next year. In September 2013 he was released by the UFC after losing to Myles Jury. After the UFC, Ricci continued his career in fighting through Titan Fighting Championship, where he beat Former Strikeforce and UFC fighter, Jorge Gurgel.