5. Marco Ruas
Marco Ruas was sort of the Brazilian who came in to replace Royce Gracie following UFC 5. Ruas wasn’t a thing like Gracie however. While he possessed great jiu-jitsu skills, Ruas was a dominating athletic presence whereas Royce always seemed to get by on fighter IQ more than anything.
On his first night in the UFC he fought and won 3x to win the UFC 7 tournament. He first submitted Larry Cureton, then did the same to Remco Pardoel, before defeating Paul Varelans in the finals. Varelans also fought 3x this night, but wasn’t quite good enough to make this list.
Ruas was already 34 when he started competing in MMA, so his career didn’t really last that long. After making it to the semi-finals of the Ultimate Ultimate 95 he fought for the World Vale Tudo Championships and Pride. He’d fight once more in the UFC, losing to Maurice Smith at UFC 21.
