On Friday, December 19th, two of our black belt instructors (Efrain Ruiz and Enrico Cocco) fought at the historic Gusman Theater in Downtown Miami in an event called the Revolution Fighting Championships (RFC). The Gusman, built in 1926 as a silent movie palace and now the home of live theater and film, seemed an unlikely, yet elegant place to watch cage fights take place in. With its beautiful Renaissance décor, I got the feeling I was about to watch a performance of Shakespeare as I sat down, and not grown men beating each other into submission.
For those of you that don’t already know Efrain and Enrico, here is a little background on them. Efrain Ruiz is a black belt in kickboxing under legendary kickboxer Joe Lewis, and a black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu under Ricardo Texeira. Coach Efrain is also a two-time state shoot fighting champion among many other accomplishments. He is in charge of our kickboxing program here at FFA (Freestyle Fighting Academy) and he is one of our head instructors.
Enrico Cocco is a black belt in Tae Kwon Do and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Enrico was named “the teenage phenom” years ago because he was beating adult black belts in the national tournament circuit while he was still a kid. Enrico teaches MMA and grappling in our Combat Athlete Program and he is also one of our head instructors here at FFA.
Enrico Cocco fought Vladimir Laguna. The bell rang and Vladimir Laguna came forward aggressively, throwing wild punches. Enrico Cocco immediately grabbed him in a muay thai clinch and started dropping hard knees on his opponents head and body. Enrico then quickly changed levels and went for a single leg takedown. To Vladimir’s credit he was able to react quickly to the shot and sprawled hard, causing Enrico to end up on his back. “He hipped me hard and I lost balance.” Vladimir tried to capitalize on this by throwing big punches on his downed opponent but Enrico was not having any of it. Off his back, Enrico threaded his legs around Vladimir’s legs and swept him down, finishing his opponent with a straight ankle lock. All this happened in an instant since Vladimir Laguna officially tapped out at 24 seconds into the first round! After the fight a spectator commented to Enrico Cocco, “Damn that was quick. Did you even break a sweat?” With a smile on his face Enrico replied, “Yeah I did… in the locker room.”
Efrain Ruiz fought Rob Bailey in the Revolution Fighting Championships (RFC) main event bout. Efrain Ruiz had said right before the fight that he was planning on taking his opponent down and working his ground game and that’s exactly what he did. The bell rang for the first round and Efrain clinched his opponent and put him up against the cage. He then tripped his opponent down onto the canvas and ended up on top of him in his guard. From there Efrain Ruiz began dropping punches on Bailey for about a minute straight. To avoid getting hit Bailey unlocked his legs to push Efrain away but Efrain made it to half guard where he unleashed more punches and elbows from the top. Eventually Efrain Ruiz made it to side control and tried to finish his opponent with a kimura shoulder lock, but Rob Bailey defended well by holding onto his shorts. When Efrain Ruiz noticed he couldn’t finish the lock, he immediately transitioned to mount and pounded out his opponent some more. At the end of the round he went for an armbar from mount and Bailey managed to escape as the bell rang.
The fight was eventually stopped in the middle of the second round by the referee and Efrain Ruiz raised his bloody hand in victory as half the crowd in attendance chanted out “F-F-A, F-F-A, F-F-A.”, in the historic Gusman theater. It was a great night for the Freestyle Fighting Academy and its’ fighters. It was a glorious night indeed!
By Kevin Perez
