Pedro Rizzo

died=
fightingfrom=
hometown=Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
fightteam=Ruas Vale Tudo
fightstyle=Muay Thai
wins=16
losses=8
draws=0
nocontest=0
ko=9
submissions=4|

Pedro Augusto "The Rock" Rizzo (born May 3, 1974) is a Brazilian mixed martial arts fighter and professional kickboxer. He has a professional MMA record of 16-8-0 as of July 19, 2007. Rizzo is considered to be an excellent striker among MMA athletes. He is a former WVC heavyweight champion, and former contender for the UFC heavyweight belt. Rizzo is the current UAFC Heavyweight Champion.

Rizzo is also a four-time Brazilian Muay Thai champion, with a professional record of 31-0-1 (30 KO) in kickboxing. Most of his professional kickboxing wins came while spending a few years training Muay Thai in the Netherlands, which is considered the mecca of professional heavyweight muay Thai kickboxing. During Rizzo's time there he formed a close friendship with 3-time K-1 kickboxing champion Peter Aerts. The two still keep in contact and train together whenever possible.

Trained by Vale Tudo legend Marco Ruas, Rizzo has adopted Ruas' brutal leg kicks and has developed strong stand up fighting and used this to great effect in the cage. A stint in PRIDE FC didn't go too well for the former UFC Heavyweight Title contender, and Rizzo suffered quick losses at the hands of Sergei Kharitonov and Roman Zentsov.

Rizzo returned to his winning ways on the 9th March, 2007 when he beat UFC veteran Justin Eilers by unanimous decision at the début show of Art of War Undisputed Arena Fighting Championships, which was held in Dallas, Texas.

He defeated Jeff Monson on September 1, 2007. This fight took place on the first pay-per-view event promoted by the Art of War organization.

Rizzo was defeated at by Josh Barnett, via knockout in round 2.

Personal life

Rizzo has a daughter named Laila. [cite web |url=http://mmasportsmag.com/interview_pedro_rizzo.htm |title=Pedro Rizzo interview: MMA Sport interview exclusive with Pedro Rizzo|accessdate=2008-08-16 |publisher=MMASportsmag.com, by Ed Preuss |date=2008-07-14 ]

Mixed martial arts record

MMArecordbox
wins=16
losses=8
ko-wins=9
ko-losses=5
sub-wins=4
sub-losses=0
dec-wins=3
dec-losses=3

ee also

*List of male mixed martial artists

References

External links

*Sherdog|id=208|name=Pedro Rizzo
* [http://www.mmaringreport.com/interview/interview_rizzo.htm Interview (MMARingReport)]