Richie Vaculik ( ; born Richard Vaculik) is a

mixed martial artist Mixed martial arts (MMA), sometimes referred to as cage fighting, no holds barred (NHB), and ultimate fighting, and originally referred to as Vale Tudo is a full-contact combat sport based on striking, grappling and ground fighting, incorpo ...

and big wave surfer from Maroubra, Australia. Richie competed in the

Ultimate Fighting Championship The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is an American mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion company based in Las Vegas, Nevada. It is owned and operated by Zuffa, a wholly owned subsidiary of Endeavor Group Holdings. It is the largest MMA ...

(UFC)

Flyweight Flyweight is a weight class in combat sports. Boxing Flyweight is a class in boxing which includes fighters weighing above 49 kg (108 lb) and up to 51 kg (112 lb). Professional boxing The flyweight division was the last of b ...

division.

Early life

Richie's sporting accomplishments started as a surfer at Maroubra Beach, Sydney (Australia).

Bra Boys The Bra Boys are a gang centred on surf culture, founded and based in Maroubra, an eastern suburb of Sydney, New South Wales in the 1990s. The gang has gained notoriety through violence and alleged links to organised crime, as well as some comm ...

including the Abberton brothers ( Sunny Abberton,

Koby Abberton Koby Abberton (born 2 June 1979 in Maroubra, New South Wales), an Australian former professional surfer, is a member of the Australian surf gang the Bra Boys. He rose to local prominence in 2006, when he was found guilty of perverting the ...

, Jai Abberton and Dakota Abberton), Mark Mathews and Richie grew up surfing the iconic Maroubra

Beach break A beach is a landform alongside a body of water which consists of loose particles. The particles composing a beach are typically made from rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles, etc., or biological sources, such as mollusc shells ...

s and other waves including 'Ours'. In an interview with Surfing Magazine Richie stated that as teenagers he and some Bra Boys would fight each other for fun or to resolve disputes. Richie was introduced to Brazilian jiu-jitsu by blackbelt Bruno Panno at the age of 18.

Mixed martial arts career

Early career

In November 2006 Richie made a successful MMA debut at ''Warriors Realm 7'' against Michael Mortimer, winning via first-round knockout.

Cage Fighting Championship

Richie remained undefeated before challenging

Gustavo Falciroli Gustavo Falciroli (born 13 December 1982) is an Australian-Brazilian mixed martial artist. Brazilian-born Gustavo has lived in Australia since 2007 and is an Australian citizen. Gustavo Falciroli is the reigning Cage Fighting Championship and Au ...

for the Cage Fighting Championship (CFC) inaugural bantamweight title at CFC 12, in March 2010, at the

Hordern Pavilion Hordern Pavilion is a building located in Moore Park, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, on the grounds of the old Sydney Showground. "The Hordern", as it is affectionally known by Sydneysiders, has been an architecturally and socially signi ...

. Falciroli defeated Richie via unanimous 5-round decision.

Proud Warriors Productions, Australian Fighting Championship and Combat8

Since 2011 Richie has exclusively fought international competition. At ''Proud Warriors Productions'' (PWP) 3, September 2011, Richie defeated Hawaiian Justin Wong via first round submission. In February 2012, Richie defeated American Nick Honstein for the inaugural featherweight belt at PWP 4: Vaculik vs Honstein, via first round submission. At Australian Fighting Championship (AFC) 3, April 2012, Richie defeated American MMA veteran Matt Jaggers via first-round knockout. Richie also defeated American Charlie Alaniz, via split decision (5 rounds), to capture the ''Combat8'' bantamweight title in mid 2013 in a modified MMA rules event broadcast live via epicentre.tv and delayed broadcast on

Fox Sports Fox Sports is the brand name for a number of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world. The ''Fox Sports'' name has since been used for other sports media assets. These assets are held mainly by the F ...

Ultimate Fighting Championship

In June 2012, Richie was cast on The Ultimate Fighter: The Smashes (TUF Smashes). Richie fought twice at lightweight, he was outsized and defeated by

Norman Parke Norman Parke (born 22 December 1986) is a Northern Irish mixed martial artist. A professional MMA competitor since 2006, Parke has fought for the UFC, Absolute Championship Berkut, KSW, and BAMMA. He was also a competitor for Team UK on The ...

via unanimous decision (2 rounds) and Colin Fletcher via second round submission. In December 2013, Richie made his UFC and flyweight debut on the undercard at UFC Fight Night: Hunt vs. Bigfoot against Justin Scoggins and was defeated via first-round TKO. In an interview with MMA Kanvas Richie stated he was surprised by Scoggin's wrestling based game plan. Vaculik was set to face Jon delos Reyes on the undercard at UFC Fight Night: Te Huna vs. Marquardt on 8 June 2014. Reyes was replaced by Philippines' Roldan Sangcha'an. Vaculik he defeated Sangcha-an via unanimous decision. Vaculik was expected to face Ray Borg on 8 November 2014 at

UFC Fight Night 55 ''UFC Fight Night: Rockhold vs. Bisping'' (also known as ''UFC Fight Night 55'') was a mixed martial arts event held at the Allphones Arena in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia on November 8, 2014. Background This event was the fourth event t ...

. However, Borg was unavailable and

Neil Seery Neil Seery (born 30 August 1979) is a retired Irish professional mixed martial artist, who most recently competed in the flyweight division of the UFC. Beginning his career in 2005, Seery also competed for BAMMA, Cage Warriors, and RINGS. He w ...

was officially announced as Richie's opponent. Subsequently, Seery pulled out of that bout as well and was replaced by

Louis Smolka Louis Smolka (born July 16, 1991) is an American mixed martial artist who competes in the bantamweight division. A professional competitor since 2010, he has previously fought for the Ultimate Fighting Championship, California Xtreme Fighting, Kin ...

. Despite winning the first and second rounds, Vaculik lost the fight via TKO in the third round. Vaculik faced Danny Martinez on 15 November 2015 at

UFC 193 ''UFC 193: Rousey vs. Holm'' was a mixed martial arts event held on 14 November 2015, at Etihad Stadium in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It was the most attended UFC event in the history of the company at the time, with 56,214 people filling th ...

. He lost the fight via unanimous decision and was subsequently cut from the UFC in 2016.

Film and television

Richie features in Bra Boys: Blood is Thicker than Water. Macario De Souza directed friends

Mark Matthews Mark Matthews (August 7, 1894 – September 6, 2005) was an American veteran of the Second World War and a Buffalo Soldier. Born in Alabama and growing up in Ohio, Matthews joined the 10th Cavalry Regiment when he was only 15 years old, after ...

and Richie in the follow up documentary Fighting Fear. On The Ultimate Fighter: The Smashes, Richie represented Australia for the first time inside the UFC octagon. The Crew is a successful television series that follows on from Fighting Fear documenting Richie's career in MMA and surfing on

Fuel TV Fox Sports 2 (FS2) is an American sports-oriented pay television channel owned by the Fox Sports Media Group, a unit of Fox Corporation. The channel is based at the Fox Sports division's headquarters on the Fox Studio Lot in the Century C ...

. The three friends Richie, De Souza and Mathews were the subject of an

Australian Story ''Australian Story'' is a national weekly current affairs and documentary style television series which is broadcast on ABC Television. It is produced specifically by the ABC News and Current Affairs Department. The program first aired on 29 ...

episode ''Scared Straight'' (2011) where Sue Masters looks into their maturation as professionals in their respective careers and some of the trails and tribulations of getting there. According to

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...

Vas is set to co-anchor a UFC Tonight style show for

on Australian pay television network Foxtel alongside Tara Rushton called UFC Fight Week that premiered on Thursday, 16 April 2015.

Big wave surfing

Richie has surfed some of the world's most dangerous breaks including ''The Right'' and Shipsterns Bluff (Australia), Hawaii and

Teahupo'o Teahupoo () is a village on the southwestern coast of the island of Tahiti, French Polynesia, in the southern Pacific Ocean. It is known for the surf break and heavy, glassy waves offshore, often reaching , and sometimes up to . It is the site o ...

(Tahiti). Surfing since the age of 10, he credits the older surfers who pushed him to ride waves out of his comfort zone from an early age. Bra Boys pioneered standup surfing at a local Sydney break called Cape Fear, on the southern side of the

Botany Bay Botany Bay (Dharawal: ''Kamay''), an open oceanic embayment, is located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, south of the Sydney central business district. Its source is the confluence of the Georges River at Taren Point and the Cook ...

at Cape Solander. Known locally as 'Ours', it became the site of a Red Bull

big wave surfing Big wave surfing is a discipline within surfing in which experienced surfers paddle into, or are towed into, waves which are at least 20 feet (6.2 m) high, on surf boards known as "guns" or towboards. Sizes of the board needed to successfully su ...

competition in August 2014 called

Red Bull Cape Fear The Red Bull Cape Fear is a surfing competition held at a local Sydney, Australian, break called Cape Fear, on the southern side of Botany Bay at Cape Solander. Known locally as 'Ours', it became the site of a Red Bull big wave surfing Big wav ...

. Richie competed against fellow local Evan Faulks.

Championships and accomplishments

*Cage Fighting Championship **CFC Bantamweight title *Combat8 **Combat8 Bantamweight title *Proud Warriors Productions **PWP Featherweight title

Mixed martial arts record

- , Loss , align=center, 10–5 , Nobuki Fujii , Submission (rear-naked choke) ,

Pancrase Pancrase Inc. is a mixed martial arts promotion company founded in Japan in 1993 by professional wrestlers Masakatsu Funaki and Minoru Suzuki. The name was based on pankration, a fighting sport in the Ancient Olympic Games. Suzuki and Funaki pr ...

289 , , align=center, 1 , align=center, 3:42 ,

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

, Japan , , - , Loss , align=center, 10–4 , Danny Martinez , Decision (unanimous) ,

, , align=center, 3 , align=center, 5:00 ,

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

, Australia , , - , Loss , align=center, 10–3 ,

, KO (side kick and punches) , UFC Fight Night: Rockhold vs. Bisping , , align=center, 3 , align=center, 0:18 , Sydney , , - , Win , align=center, 10–2 , Roldan Sangcha-an , Decision (unanimous) , UFC Fight Night: Te-Huna vs. Marquardt , , align=center, 3 , align=center, 5:00 ,

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about ...

, New Zealand , , - , Loss , align=center, 9–2 , Justin Scoggins , TKO (punches) , UFC Fight Night: Hunt vs. Bigfoot , , align=center, 1 , align=center, 4:43 ,

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Queensland, and the third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of approximately 2.6 million. Brisbane lies at the centre of the South ...

, Australia , , - , Win , align=center, 9–1 , Matt Jaggers , TKO (punches) , AFC 3 – Australian Fighting Championship 3 , , align=center, 1 , align=center, 0:41 ,

, Australia , , - , Win , align=center, 8–1 , Nick Honstein , Submission (triangle armbar) , PWP 4 – Vaculik vs. Honstein , , align=center, 1 , align=center, 0:59 , Sydney , , - , Win , align=center, 7–1 , Justin Wong , Submission (rear-naked choke) , PWP 3 – Proud Warrior Productions 3 , , align=center, 1 , align=center, 5:00 , Sydney , , - , Win , align=center, 6–1 , Glenn Taylor-Smith , Submission (rear-naked choke) , Impact FC 2 – The Uprising: Sydney , , align=center, 2 , align=center, 2:43 , Sydney , , - , Win , align=center, 5–1 , Evan Byrne , Submission (rear-naked choke) , CFC – Cage Fighting Championships 14 , , align=center, 1 , align=center, 5:00 , Sydney , , - , Loss , align=center, 4–1 ,

, Decision (unanimous) , CFC 12 – Lombard vs. Santore , , align=center, 5 , align=center, 5:00 , Sydney , , - , Win , align=center, 4–0 , Michael Mortimer , Submission (rear-naked choke) , CFC 9 – Fighters Paradise , , align=center, 1 , align=center, 4:35 ,

Gold Coast Gold Coast may refer to: Places Africa * Gold Coast (region), in West Africa, which was made up of the following colonies, before being established as the independent nation of Ghana: ** Portuguese Gold Coast (Portuguese, 1482–1642) ** Dutch G ...

, Australia , , - , Win , align=center, 3–0 , Ross MacLeod , KO (punch) , CFC 7 – Battle at the Big Top , , align=center, 1 , align=center, 1:59 , Sydney , , - , Win , align=center, 2–0 , Alexandre Shevtsov , Submission (rear-naked choke) , Warriors Realm 8 , , align=center, 2 , align=center, 2:24 , Sydney , , - , Win , align=center, 1–0 , Michael Mortimer , KO (punch) , Warriors Realm 7 , , align=center, 1 , align=center, 1:36 , Sydney ,

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Vaculik, Richie Vas 1983 births Living people Australian male mixed martial artists Lightweight mixed martial artists Mixed martial artists utilizing Greco-Roman wrestling Mixed martial artists utilizing Brazilian jiu-jitsu Australian practitioners of Brazilian jiu-jitsu Bantamweight mixed martial artists Australian surfers Sportsmen from New South Wales Flyweight mixed martial artists Sportspeople from Sydney Ultimate Fighting Championship male fighters