Marco Antônio de Lima Ruas (; born 23 January 1961) is a Brazilian former mixed martial arts fighter, submission wrestler, kickboxer and instructor. Ruas was the UFC 7 Tournament Champion, and also competed for the World Vale Tudo Championship (WVC), PRIDE Fighting Championships and the International Fight League, where he head-coached the Southern California Condors. Ruas is a pioneer of Mixed martial arts, having fought in a high-profile Vale Tudo bout in 1984, and later winning the UFC 7 tournament in 1995, begin the second Brazilian UFC champion and fourth overall of the organization. Although he was billed as a representative of Luta Livre and thus a high-level submission grappler, he was an equally capable and skilled Muay Thai striker with experience in Capoeira, Boxing, Judo and Taekwondo, Wrestling. He was able to synthesize both grappling and striking into one style, known for begin one of the first proponents of cross-training to compete in mixed martial arts events, and is considered one of the very first well-rounded fighters and true "mixed martial artist". This is represented by his famous quote after winning his fight in WVC 4: "If you grapple me, I punch and kick you. If you punch and kick me, I grapple you. There's no way out." Ruas transformed his style in his own hybrid martial art which he called "Ruas Vale Tudo". In some later events, his fighting style was simply billed as "Vale Tudo". Biography Ruas was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1961. He started his career training Boxing, Taekwondo, Judo, Capoeira, and Wrestling with renowned Mestre Camisa in Rio de Janeiro at the Santa Luzia club, downtown Rio. However, his primary martial arts eventually became Luta Livre, which he trained under Roberto Leitão Sr., and Muay Thai, which he trained under Luiz Alves, a student of Nélio "Naja" Borges, the man who introduced Thai boxing to Brazil. As a black belt in Luta Livre, who faced up a legendary quarrel against the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu fighters in the 1980s and 1990s. In 1984, he participated of the Noite das Artes Marciais ("Night of the Martial Arts") event, fought by representatives of BJJ against representatives of Muay Thai, Kung Fu, Kickboxing and Luta Livre. Ruas represented muay Thai fighting a match against BJJ representative Fernando Pinduka, he used his Luta Livre skills to counter Pinduka's grappling and the match went to draw. After the match