#4 Ninja Rua shuts Tony Bonello’s filthy mouth
From DREAM to the defunct Elite XC promotion, and from showboating during the fight to showboating before the fight. This one’s a classic for all the wrong reasons.
Australian fighter Tony ‘The Gun’ Bonello probably isn’t a name you’ve heard of if you’re a casual MMA fan, but in the mid-2000’s, the BJJ black belt was actually the highest paid fighter in the history of the King of the Cage promotion.
Granted, it’s not like he was making Conor McGregor money, but for some reason, KOTC saw Bonello as a big star and pushed him as such. Rumours of worked fights abounded but by the end of 2007, he’d built a 15-0 record and decided it was time to step up in competition.
2007 was also the year Elite XC swallowed up a bunch of regional promotions – including KOTC – so it made sense that Bonello would migrate there. In his debut, he was matched with former PRIDE star Murilo ‘Ninja’ Rua, who’d fallen on some hard times – he’d been knocked out by Robbie Lawler and lost the EXC Middleweight title in the process.
The word from KOTC was that Bonello liked to hand-pick his opponents, so whether that was the case here I don’t know. Maybe he figured Ninja was done and would be a great name for his record? Whatever the case, it turned out to be a mistake.
With his myriad tattoos and shaved head, Bonello looked intimidating and he decided to amp up the intimidation factor in this fight. When ref Mario Yamasaki called the fighters to the centre of the cage, the Australian got right into Ninja’s face, yelling “f**k you!” at him two or three times.
It was all the fuel that the Brazilian needed.
Bonello came out swinging and then pulled guard, evidently believing in the power of his ground game. It turned out that he’d horribly underestimated Ninja. The Brazilian sliced right through the guard of ‘The Gun’ and settled into side mount, where he began to drop thudding elbows onto the face of the Australian.
Bonello seemed unable to defend and Ninja smelled blood, moving into a knee-on-belly position before grabbing Bonello around the throat with his left hand, and from there he used his right to punch the Aussie into unconsciousness.
It was a devastating knockout and a devastating way for Bonello to lose his gaudy unbeaten record. He learned an important lesson here – don’t talk trash unless you can really back it up.
