In the sport of mixed martial arts, few fighters have a highlight reel that’s as jaw-droppingly spectacular as that of Marcus ‘Lelo’ Aurelio.
Not to be confused with his namesake and fellow Brazilian, Marcus ‘Maximus’ Aurelio, who fought in both PRIDE and the UFC, ‘Lelo’ instead fought for the likes of Bellator and Battle Fight League during his 6-2 run in the sport.
Aurelio easily stood out among his fighting peers due to his insanely acrobatic approach to fighting, which would see him constantly looking for opportunities to launch into spinning, flying, twisting, turning, gravity-defying techniques that would often leave his opponents completely bamboozled, not knowing what was coming next.
The core of Aurelio’s style was the Brazilian martial art of Capoeira, which truly celebrates the ‘art’ of fighting by incorporating elements of dance, acrobatics, and music, making it a hugely entertaining spectacle to behold.
As such, Capoeira has often been seen as more of a performance art that is at its best thrilling onlookers on the streets of Brazil, rather than a serious fighting system that can be used to devastating effect in the cage.
However, that is as the originators of Capoeira intended it to be, as the style was reportedly created by African slaves in Brazil back in the 1600’s, who needed a way to defend themselves, but were banned from practicing martial arts of any kind, so they disguised it as a dance.
As a long-time practitioner of Capoeira, Aurelio was convinced that it could be effective in MMA, and so he set out to prove it.
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The results were stunning, with five of Aurelio’s six wins coming by way of T/KO, including flying switch kicks and spinning Capoeira kicks that would invariably go viral on YouTube afterward.
Unfortunately, Aurelio bowed out of the sport after losing by split decision in his Bellator debut and then failing to progress in the promotion’s ‘Fight Master’ reality show tournament, but nevertheless, he is still fondly remembered for producing some of the most memorable knockouts in MMA history.
