ADCC has Ricardo “Cachorrao” Almeida Interview

From ADCombat.com:

Ricardo “Cachorrao” Almeida Interview
Submitted by:Kid Peligro / Sr Editor
Posted on : 7/10/2007

Ricardo “Cachorrao” Almeida Interview

Very few people succeed in the MMA World, with the competitive nature of the game and the ever-increasing pool of talent, it is hard to succeed and those few who reach the status of Champion rarely give up their throne voluntarily. But there are those special people that have a mission and choose their own path one such person is Ricardo “Cachorrao” Almeida. “Cachorra”o began his fighting career almost by accident, Almeida was in Japan assisting Renzo for a fight when a fighter dropped out of the event due to an injury and he was asked if he wanted to take his place. Not one to shy away from opportunity “Cachorrao” made his debut as a last minute replacement against the tough Akira Shoji in Pride 12 in December 2000. “Cachorrao” won the fight and a career was launched. After a couple of stumbles in his early fighting days (losses against top fighters Matt Lindland and Andrey Semenov). Ricardo hit stride and went on a 6-fight winning streak taking the King of Pancrase title in the process. Just as soon as he hit Ricardo felt the need to change and abandoned his MMA career to pursue his other vision: expanding his horizons as a BJJ instructor.

Now with that part of his life fulfilled Ricardo comes back to his other love, fighting as he makes his return against Denis Hallman in the Cage Fury Fighting event at the Taj Mahal Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey on September 28th.

We caught up with Ricardo recently and got the heads up on him!

You were very successful in fighting, why did you leave MMA?

You know, I began looking at fighters leaving MMA and I started to think that I didn't want to leave MMA having to look at the rest of my life and realize that MMA was all I had.
I guess I felt I had accomplished enough in MMA, but there were other areas of my life much more important to me that I needed to focus on. I wanted to dedicate myself to my family. I wanted to dedicate myself to my Academy and my students. I wanted to dedicate myself to Jiu Jitsu.I wanted to work on my life outside the competitive circuit.

Click here for the rest of the interview