Ed Ratcliff: Another Karate Based Fighter Making His Mark in MMA

(Image Courtesy of shomanart.com)

Ed "9mm" Ratcliff started training in Karate as a young boy under the tutelage his mother. Ratcliff had a stellar run in his career until he ran into a roadblock named Marcus Hicks. Hicks overpowered Ratcliff in the wrestling game and finished him via submission. Before that Ratcliff had won his first six professional bouts finsihing all of his opponents within the first two rounds. In his WEC debut he TKO'd the heavily favored Alex Karalexis and wowed the crowd with his unorthodox striking game. Ratcliff recently got back on the winning track in the WEC with his first decision in eight fights, a win over Phil Cardella in August. Ratcliff looks to build off of that momentum in his next fight against the always dangerous Donald Cerrone. Cerrone has a good striking game with some amazing Jiu Jitsu to go along with it. In Donald Cerrone Ratcliff will get what he wants in an opponent that will stand and trade with him to give him a chance to showcase his signature spinning hook kick as he calls it. Cerrone is not that great at one aspect of the game and that is in the wrestling department, so 9mm will more than likely be able to keep it standing if he so chooses. Ratcliff has tried for submissions in fights before and even finished an opponent via armbar, but he would do well not to test his ground game against Cerrone's Jiu Jitsu. With Karate schools abuzz from the rise of Lyoto Machida, Ed Ratcliff could be another name that gets people excited again about Karate in today's world of combat sports.
Ed Ratcliff faces Donald Cerrone this Saturday night on Versus from The Pearl at the Palms in Las Vegas. The full card is below:

MAIN CARD
Donald Cerrone vs. Ed Ratcliff
Chris Horodecki vs. Anthony Njokuani
Joseph Benavidez vs. Rani Yahya
Scott Jorgensen vs. Takeya Mizugaki
PRELIMINARY CARD
Bart Palaszewski vs. Anthony Pettis
Muhsin Corbbrey vs. Zach Micklewright
Chad George vs. John Hosman
Courtney Buck vs. Brandon Visher
Kyle Dietz vs. Brad Pickett
Erik Koch vs. Jameel Massouh