You may not have heard a whole lot about him in recent years but Pedro Rizzo will go down as a legend of mixed martial arts.
The Brazilian heavyweight called time on an MMA career spanning 19 years with a TKO victory on Saturday night.
Rizzo made his debut in 1996 and went 5-0 before appearing in the UFC for the first time at UFC Brazil in 1998.
He fought 14 times under that banner, including three fights for the UFC heavyweight champion, before leaving the promotion in 2003.
Rizzo, 41, finished his career by forcing Andrew Flores to quit on his stool in between rounds during the headliner of Face to Face 12 in Vitoria, Brazil.
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The Rock used his patented leg kicks to punish Flores and earn the 20th win of a tremendous career.
“I don’t need to fight anymore,” Rizzo said after the fight. “But I wanted to fight one more time for my students and my daughter, who is eight years old and wanted to see me fight. Now is time for the new athletes and talents to shine. It all ended how it started, with low kicks in Brazil.”
