Ricardo Arona

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Profile

Ricardo "The Brazilian Tiger" Arona (born July 17, 1978) is a Brazilian professional mixed martial artist and Brazilian jiu jitsu black belt.

He stands 5 ft. 11 in. (180 cm) tall and fights in the light heavyweight division (205 lbs.).

Arona was the 2001 Open Weight Abu Dhabi Combat Club Submission Wrestling World Champion and the runner-up in PRIDE's 2005 Middleweight Grand Prix.

Rings

On the back of his highly decorated grappling career, Ricardo Arona made his professional mixed martial arts debut on April 20, 2000 for the Rings promotion. He defeated his opponent, Andrei Kopylov, via unanimous decision after two rounds.

Four months later, Arona scored a split decision victory over UFC veteran, Jeremy Horn.

In December of 2000, Arona entered Rings' King of Kings tournament where he faced unheralded Sambo expert, Fedor Emelianenko. In an extremely close bout that many thought Arona won, Fedor was given the unanimous decision victory.

Arona rebounded from the loss by submitting Hiromitsu Kanehara in his next bout with a kneebar. He followed that victory with a majority decision win over Jeremy Horn and an impressive TKO stoppage of Gustavo Machado in August of 2001.

PRIDE

Shortly after the Horn and Machado victories, Arona signed to fight with the premier Japanese organization, the PRIDE Fighting Championships. He made his PRIDE debut at PRIDE 16 against Lion's Den fighter, Guy Mezger. In a close bout, Arona was surprisingly given a split decision victory much to the digust of Mezger.

Seven months later, Arona faced off against former Olympian, Dan Henderson at PRIDE 20. In another extremely close fight, Arona again prevailed via split decision after the 20 minutes.

In November of that year, Arona met fellow Brazilian, Murilo Rua at PRIDE 23. Arona came out on top in the bout via unanimous decision.

At PRIDE: Critical Countdown 2004, Arona squared off against Quinton "Rampage" Jackson. In one of the most memorable finishes in MMA history, Arona locked up a triangle choke on "Rampage" only to have Jackson lift him above his head and then slam him down onto the mat, knocking him unconscious.

Arona bounced back from the dramatic loss with a rear naked choke submission win over Sergey Ignatov at PRIDE 28.

In 2005, Arona was announced as one of 16 competitors in PRIDE's 2005 Middleweight Grand Prix. He faced fellow highly decorated submission wrestler, Dean Lister in the opening round at PRIDE: Total Elimination 2005. Arona outworked Lister for the three rounds, ultimately taking a unanimous decision win on the judges' cards.

Two months later at PRIDE: Critical Countdown 2005, Arona met Japanese legend, Kazushi Sakuraba in the quarter finals. Arona brutalized Sakuraba with knees in the bout, messing Sakuraba's face up and forcing the stoppage at the end of the second round.

At the semi-final stage - PRIDE: Final Conflict 2005 - Arona met PRIDE middleweight champion, Wanderlei Silva. Arona used his superior wrestling to keep Silva on his back for the majority of the fight, taking the unanimous decision and huge upset.

Later that night, Arona met Silva's training partner, Mauricio "Shogun" Rua in the final. Shogun landed a stomp through Arona's guard and some follow up punches that knocked Arona unconscious at the 2:54 mark of the first round.

At PRIDE: Shockwave 2005 - PRIDE's New Year's Eve show - Arona faced Wanderlei Silva for his middleweight championship. Once again, the bout went the full distance but with Silva edging out Arona this time via split decision to retain his title.

Fighting just the once in 2006, Arona forced Grand Prix semi-finalist, Alistair Overeem to submit to punches in the first round at PRIDE: Final Conflict Absolute.

In April of 2007, Arona was matched up against Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou at PRIDE 34. Sokoudjou had just shot into stardom with a huge upset of Antonio Rogerio Nogueira at PRIDE 33 and was again a huge underdog against Arona. Lightning struck twice however, as Sokoudjou landed a monstrous uppercut just under two minutes in that sent Arona flying across the ring into a heap. Some follow up punches and soccer kicks saw the end of the fight with Arona's record moving to 13-5.