Currently training out of the Tristar Gym as part of Zahabi MMA, Mike Ricci is a very highly touted lightweight prospect signed to the Bellator FC roster. A TKO, XMMA and Ringside MMA veteran, Ricci has been making waves on the Canadian mixed martial arts scene and has received ringing endorsements from some of the best trainers and fighters in the sport. UFC veterans Patrick Cote and Georges St. Pierre have both come out in the past and stated that he is one of their best training partners, and highly respected trainer Firas Zahabi has gone on record saying that Mike Ricci will be the "next big thing" to come out of the Tristar Gym and Canada in general. Standing six feet tall and cutting from over 180 pounds to fight at lightweight, Ricci is a very large 155 pound fighter who possesses tremendous size for the division. Ricci is a very athletic lightweight (he was playing college football prior to embarking on his MMA career) and his style of fighting and raw skills have favourably been compared to Georges St. Pierre in the past. Although his home gym is the Tristar Gym, Ricci will look outside to find the best partners and training he can and gets a chance to train with top level MMA talent (including Rashad Evans, Nate Marquardt, St. Pierre, Denis Kang and David Loiseau amongst others) on a regular basis.

Like St. Pierre, Ricci regularly trains his wrestling with the Canadian Olympic Wrestling Team and that training has been paying off as his wrestling abilities are one of the strengths in his MMA game. Ricci possesses very good defensive wrestling skills including an excellent sprawl, and has been very difficult to take down early in his career. From top position Ricci's shown tremendous composure and good control, while also possessing the ability the open up with strong ground and pound attack when he chooses to. Ricci is a patient fighter who gets hit very rarely and prides himself on the strong defensive abilities he's shown early in his career. Training his boxing at the Grant Brother's gym in Montreal, Ricci has good hands as well as developing kickboxing and muay thai abilities and is a fighter that does look to the top gyms and training partners of the individual disciplines of the sport to fine tune his skills with. Ricci is an intelligent fighter with a very methodical and analytical approach to his fights, and if he can continue refining his raw tools has a chance to develop into a very special MMA lightweight.