Ricardo Arona (; born 17 July 1978) is a retired Brazilian

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 ...

. A professional from 2000 until 2009, he competed in

PRIDE Fighting Championships PRIDE Fighting Championships (Pride or Pride FC, founded as KRS-Pride) was a Japanese mixed martial arts promotion company. Its inaugural event was held at the Tokyo Dome on October 11, 1997. Pride held more than sixty mixed martial arts eve ...

and RINGS in his mixed martial arts career, and was a member of Brazilian Top Team. He is the former RINGS Middleweight Champion, as well as the 2001 RINGS Middleweight Championship Tournament Winner, and 2005 PRIDE Middleweight Grand Prix Runner-Up. In

submission wrestling Submission wrestling, also known as Submission grappling, Submission fighting a form of competition and a general term for martial arts and combat sports that focus on clinch and ground fighting with the aim of obtaining a submission through the ...

, he holds an undefeated record of 13–0, never losing a single point in a match, and is a four-time ADCC Champion. These achievements are what led to Arona being part of the inaugural class inducted into the ADCC Hall of Fame. He has notable wins in both MMA and submission grappling competition over Tito Ortiz, Jeff Monson,

Renato Sobral Renato da Cunha Sobral (; born 7 September 1975), also known as "Babalu", is a retired Brazilian Luta Livre submission grappler, mixed martial artist, and was the former Strikeforce Light Heavyweight Champion. Sobral previously fought in the Ult ...

Vitor Belfort Vítor Vieira Belfort (; born 1 April 1977) is a Brazilian mixed martial artist who competes in the Heavyweight and Middleweight divisions. Belfort previously competed for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), where he fought in the Heavywe ...

, Mark Kerr,

Kazushi Sakuraba is a Japanese professional wrestler, mixed martial artist and submission wrestler, currently signed to Rizin Fighting Federation and Pro Wrestling Noah, where he was formerly one-half of the former GHC Tag Team Champions with Takashi Sugi ...

, Wanderlei Silva,

Dan Henderson Daniel Jeffery Henderson (born August 24, 1970) is an American retired mixed martial artist and Olympic wrestler, who last competed as a middleweight in the Ultimate Fighting Championship. He was the last Strikeforce Light Heavyweight Champ ...

, Alistair Overeem, Murilo Rua,

Jeremy Horn Jeremy Graham Horn (born August 25, 1975) is an American mixed martial artist. Horn is best known for fighting in smaller American promotions, he has also competed in some of the premiere mixed martial arts organizations around the world, incl ...

Guy Mezger Guy Mezger (born January 1, 1968) is an American martial artist, who competed in professional combat sports including Full Contact Karate, Kickboxing, and Boxing, but is most recognized as a Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fighter. Mezger retired from ...

, and

Dean Lister Dean Richard Lister (born February 13, 1976) is a retired American mixed martial artist. A professional from 2000 until 2015, he fought in the Ultimate Fighting Championship, PRIDE Fighting Championships, and California-based promotion King of t ...

Background

Arona was born in Niteroi, Brazil and trained in

judo is an unarmed modern Japanese martial art, Olympic sport (since 1964), and the most prominent form of jacket wrestling competed internationally.『日本大百科全書』電子版【柔道】(CD-ROM version of Encyclopedia Nipponica, "Judo") ...

and

karate (; ; Okinawan pronunciation: ) is a martial art developed in the Ryukyu Kingdom. It developed from the indigenous Ryukyuan martial arts (called , "hand"; ''tii'' in Okinawan) under the influence of Chinese martial arts, particularly Fuj ...

before transitioning into

Brazilian jiu-jitsu Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ; pt, jiu-jitsu brasileiro ) is a self-defence martial art and combat sport based on grappling, ground fighting (ne-waza) and submission holds. BJJ focuses on the skill of taking an opponent to the ground, control ...

after seeing a

vale tudo Vale Tudo (; en, Everything Goes/Everything Allowed), also known No Holds Barred (NHB) in the United States, is an unarmed, full-contact combat sport with relatively few rules. It became popular in Brazil during the 20th century and would even ...

fight at the age of 13. Arona came to Carlson Gracie at the age of 18 when he was a purple belt and would go on to win numerous titles in

. He also trained in

capoeira Capoeira () is an Afro-Brazilian martial art that combines elements of dance, acrobatics, music and spirituality. Born of the melting pot of enslaved Africans, Indigenous Brazilians and Portuguese influences at the beginning of the 16th cent ...

. Arona is the only ADCC competitor to go undefeated without losing a single point in any match.

Mixed martial arts career

Fighting Network RINGS

Soon after ADCC, Arona joined Fighting Network RINGS, a Japanese mixed martial arts promotion. His debut match would against aging

sambo , aka = Sombo (in English-speaking countries) , focus = Hybrid , country = Soviet Union , pioneers = Viktor Spiridonov, Vasili Oshchepkov, Anatoly Kharlampiev , famous_pract = List of Practitioners , olymp ...

champion Andrei Kopylov, who Arona defeated by unanimous decision after controlling him positionally for most of the match. He then beat

by split decision, and went to participate in the King of Kings tournament, but was eliminated at the first round by Fedor Emelianenko in Arona's first loss. Although the Brazilian controlled Emelianenko with takedowns and superior ground game, as RINGS's ruleset gave more scoring to aggression than positional control, Fedor was awarded the decision for attempting more submissions during the match. Arona's next opponent was professional wrestler

Hiromitsu Kanehara ) is a former Japanese mixed martial artist and professional wrestler of Korean descent. A professional MMA competitor from 1998 until 2012, he found success in Fighting Network RINGS, gaining notable victories over Valentijn Overeem, Alexan ...

. Ricardo overwhelmed him with punches and takedowns, while Kanehara repeatedly reversed to top position and kept attacking, but Arona submitted him in the second round with a

kneebar A leglock is a joint lock that is directed at joints of the leg such as the ankle, knee or hip joint. A leglock which is directed at joints in the foot, is sometimes referred to as a foot lock and a lock at the hip as a hip lock. Leglocks are f ...

. Afterwards, Arona took part in a tournament for the RINGS Middleweight Championship, facing Jeremy Horn again in the first round and beating him by unanimous decision. The final match was against Gustavo Machado, who Arona defeated with kicks and punches in 1:29 to win the tournament and the title.

PRIDE Fighting Championships

After being noticed in RINGS, Arona was offered a contract to join

. He started his career there strong, defeating Pancrase veteran

, but his victory would be a controversial one. Mezger managed to stop Arona's takedowns and landed strikes, including a glancing head kick and several punches through the guard, which forced Arona to defend; it took two rounds for the Brazilian to come back, taking down Mezger and executing ground and pound until the end of the third round. Arona won a split decision, which was disputed by some sources, including the announcers of the match. Ricardo's next fight would be against another high ranked opponent,

. This time Arona was able to take down the wrestling champion, but Henderson executed his own takedown and landed knees and punches to the face until Arona could escape. The Brazilian switched his strategy and knocked down Henderson with a right hand, though the American still reversed and ended the first round attacking Arona's guard. At the second round, despite receiving a cut over his eye, Arona managed to overpower Henderson and punish him from the top. He looked to have secured a

rear-naked choke The rear naked choke (RNC) is a chokehold in martial arts applied from an opponent's back. The word "naked" in this context suggests that, unlike other strangulation techniques found in jujutsu/judo, this hold does not require the use of a keikog ...

, only for Henderson to escape, but Arona controlled him to end the match and got the split decision. At PRIDE 23, Arona would go against Murilo Rua, a member of the

Chute Boxe The Chute Boxe Academy (, ''Kick-Boxing'') is a Brazilian martial arts academy. It opened as a Muay Thai academy in 1978 in Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil. Head trainer Rudimar Fedrigo later expanded the program in 1991 to include other aspects of ...

team, which was in a rivalry with Brazilian Top Team at the time. The two contenders fought a series of battles on the clinch, in which Arona imposed his superior wrestling, and almost finished the fight with a

and an Achilles lock at the end of the first round. The match went back and forth, with Murilo escaping from sparse submissions and landing his famed strikes, but Arona overpowered him with takedowns and kicks at the end and won the unanimous decision. The victory over Rua was followed by Arona's first defeat in PRIDE, losing his fourth fight to Quinton Jackson in a spectacular knockout. Arona, outsized for the first time in the promotion, saw Jackson powering out of his holds, so he elected to stay in his guard to minimize damage. He seemed to knock out Jackson with an upkick, but as it wasn't so, he followed with a triangle choke, only for Jackson to suddenly lift him up and counter it with a powerbomb. The slam knocked Arona out and led the referee to stop the match, declaring Jackson the winner. After the bout, Arona protested and claimed that an illegal

headbutt A headbutt is a targeted strike with the head, typically (when intentional) involving the use of robust parts of the headbutter's cranium as the area of impact. The most effective headbutts strike the most sensitive areas of an opponent, such as ...

he received by Jackson at the end of the slam was what knocked him out; footage of the fight seems to support this, but it was never officially acknowledged or investigated. Four months later, Arona returned to PRIDE and won a fight against sambo champion Sergey Ignatov. On 23 April 2005, Arona entered PRIDE's Middleweight (205 lbs) Grand Prix. He won his first fight in the tournament against

by unanimous decision, controlling the ADCC contender in a slow grappling contest. In the second round of the Grand Prix, Arona won, in controversial fashion, his fight against the Japanese fighter

via corner stoppage. Although Sakuraba put Arona on his back and seemed to put to work his signature jumping stomps, Arona soon overwhelmed him, landing a series of brutal knees to the head, as well as hard soccer kicks to the face. The Brazilian's toenail accidentally slashed open the skin over Sakuraba's left eye, which the Brazilian capitalized on squeezing the cut and digging his finger into it in order to force the stoppage. The Japanese tried to keep on, but Arona hit another flurry of knees to the head, and ended the fight landing soccer kick after soccer kick. He was declared the winner when Sakuraba's corner called a stop to the fight at the conclusion of the second round due to the amount of damage he had sustained. His semifinal match, against rival Wanderlei Silva, was held on 28 August 2005. Arona surprised everyone when he defeated Silva, who was the PRIDE

Middleweight Middleweight is a weight class in combat sports. Boxing Professional In professional boxing, the middleweight division is contested above and up to . Early boxing history is less than exact, but the middleweight designation seems to have be ...

Champion at the time, by decision, handing Silva his first middle weight defeat in PRIDE. Despite Silva's feared striking, Arona put him down with an early leg kick and worked on an extensive ground and pound, taking him down every time the fight got standing in order to continue with the punishment, which lasted until the last minute. After defeating Silva, Arona advanced to finals where he faced rising MMA fighter Maurício "Shogun" Rua, brother of Murilo Rua and Chute Boxe integrant. In a dominant performance, Rua reversed a takedown from Arona and got the advantage, opening his hips to catch Arona in an omoplata. Instead of submitting Arona, Rua used the advantage to get top position, then after a missed stomp, knocked Arona out with hammerfists to the face. On 31 December 2005 Ricardo Arona fought Wanderlei Silva for a second time, this time for the Middleweight Championship. Arona threatened to execute the same gameplan, but Silva countered it with a strong takedown defense and an opportunistic striking, including standing away from Arona's guard and kicking his legs. Arona got a decisive takedown at the second round and performed ground and pound, only for Silva to reverse and get free, which forced Ricardo to pull guard. At the final round, Arona managed to take Wanderlei to the ground and attack from top position, with Silva reversing him again and kicking at his legs. Arona lost the match in a heavily debated split decision. On 10 September 2006 Arona faced Alistair Overeem. After withstanding the initial attack from Overeem, Arona landed an inside leg kick, injuring his opponent's leg and making him drop to the ground. Arona quickly overwhelmed Overeem on the ground by blanketing him and showed complete domination throughout the bout. He continued his assault until Overeem tapped out from a barrage of strikes. Arona suffered from a dengue hemorrhagic fever,Arona talks about defeat to fans
/ref> going into his fight against Sokoudjou on 8 April 2007 at

PRIDE 34 ''Pride 34: Kamikaze'' was a mixed martial arts event held by Pride Fighting Championships on April 8, 2007 at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan. Background This was the last Pride show promoted by Dream Stage Entertainment before the sa ...

. Because of its affects on his body, claims Arona, he was knocked out by Sokoudjou in just under 2 minutes.

Post-PRIDE

After his loss to Sokoudjou, Arona's comeback fight against UFC veteran Marvin Eastman was canceled due to an injury that Eastman suffered during training. The fight with Eastman was rescheduled and took place at Bitetti Combat MMA 4 on 12 September 2009. Arona won the fight via unanimous decision. In June 2014, Arona was offered a contract by

Bellator MMA Bellator MMA (formerly Bellator Fighting Championships) is an American mixed martial arts promotion founded in 2008 and based in Santa Monica, California, owned and operated as a subsidiary of television and media conglomerate Paramount Global. ...

. However, he declined the offer and cited wanting to be one hundred percent physically healthy before recommitting to MMA as his reason.

Personal life

During his free time Arona skates, rock climbs and surfs to keep himself in shape.

Championships and accomplishments

* Fighting Network RINGS ** RINGS Middleweight Championship (One Time, First, Last) ** 2001 RINGS Middleweight Championship Tournament Winner *

** 2005 PRIDE Middleweight Grand Prix Runner Up *

Sherdog Sherdog is an American website devoted to the sport of mixed martial arts (MMA). It also has many forums and discussion pages on the many topics of MMA like records, promotions, etc. The site is a member of the CraveOnline network and provides MM ...

** 2005 Upset of the Year vs. Wanderlei Silva on 28 August

Grappling credentials

* ADCC World Submission Wrestling Championships ** 2003: Superfight championship: Defeated Mark Kerr ** 2001: 88 – 98 kg: 1st Place, Openweight: 1st Place ** 2000: 88 – 98 kg: 1st Place * CBJJ World Championships ** 2000: Black Belt Pesado: 2nd Place ** 1999: Brown Belt Pesado: 1st Place, Brown Belt Open Weight: 2nd Place ** 1998: Purple Belt Meio-Pesado: 1st Place, Purple Belt * CBJJ Brazilian Championships ** 1999: Brown Belt Pesado: 1st Place

Mixed martial arts record

, - , Win , align=center, 14–5 , Marvin Eastman , Decision (unanimous) , Bitetti Combat MMA 4 , , align=center, 3 , align=center, 5:00 ,

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Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou Nkamhoua (; born April 18, 1984), mostly billed simply as Sokoudjou, is a Cameroonian professional mixed martial artist. A professional competitor since 2006, Sokoudjou is the former KSW Light Heavyweight Champion, and ...

, KO (punch) ,

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Maurício Rua Maurício Milani Rua (; born 25 November 1981), also known as Shogun, is a Brazilian professional mixed martial artist and former model. He competes in the Light Heavyweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). He is a forme ...

, KO (punches) ,

PRIDE Final Conflict 2005 The year 2005 is the 9th year in the history of the Pride Fighting Championships, a mixed martial arts promotion based in Japan. 2005 had 10 events beginning with, ''Pride 29 - Fists of Fire''. Title fights Debut Pride FC fighters The ...

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, Decision (unanimous) ,

PRIDE Total Elimination 2005 The year 2005 is the 9th year in the history of the Pride Fighting Championships, a mixed martial arts promotion based in Japan. 2005 had 10 events beginning with, ''Pride 29 - Fists of Fire''. Title fights Debut Pride FC fighters The ...

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, Japan , , - , Win , align=center, 9–2 , Sergey Ignatov , Submission (

) , PRIDE 28 , , align=center, 1 , align=center, 9:05 , Saitama, Japan , , - , Loss , align=center, 8–2 , Quinton Jackson , KO (slam) , PRIDE Critical Countdown 2004 , , align=center, 1 , align=center, 7:32 , Saitama, Japan , , - , Win , align=center, 8–1 , Murilo Rua , Decision (unanimous) , PRIDE 23 , , align=center, 3 , align=center, 5:00 ,

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.46 ...

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Submission grappling record

{, class="wikitable sortable" style="font-size:80%; text-align:left;" , - , colspan=8 style="text-align:center;" , 13 Matches, 13 Wins (1 Submission) , - ! Result ! style="text-align:center;", Rec. ! Opponent ! Method ! Event ! Division ! Date ! Location , - , Win, , style="text-align:center;", 13–0, , Mark Kerr , , Points , , ADCC World Championship , , Superfight , , 2003 , ,

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Saulo Ribeiro Saulo Mendonça Ribeiro Filho (born July 2, 1974), brother of the equally famed Xande Ribeiro, is a 6th-degree black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ). After earning a black belt in Judo, he began his training of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in Rio de ...

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Ricardo Almeida Ricardo Alves Almeida (; born November 29, 1976) is a Brazilian-American former mixed martial artist and current Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu grappler residing in Bordentown, New Jersey. Almeida is a veteran of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, PRIDE ...

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Ruslan Mashurenko Ruslan Mashurenko (born 13 March 1971) is a Ukrainian judoka. He won a bronze medal in the middleweight (90 kg) division at the 2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known ...

, , Points , - , Win, , style="text-align:center;", 4–0, , Jeff Monson , , Points , , rowspan=4, ADCC World Championship , , rowspan=4, -99 kg , , rowspan=4, 2000 , , rowspan=4,

, - , Win, , style="text-align:center;", 3–0, , Tito Ortiz , , Points , - , Win, , style="text-align:center;", 2–0, , Kareem Barkalev , , Points , - , Win, , style="text-align:center;", 1–0, ,

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References

External links

Ricardo Arona
at Pride FC (archived) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Arona, Ricardo 1978 births Living people Brazilian male mixed martial artists Light heavyweight mixed martial artists Mixed martial artists utilizing capoeira Mixed martial artists utilizing karate Mixed martial artists utilizing judo Mixed martial artists utilizing Brazilian jiu-jitsu Brazilian capoeira practitioners Brazilian male judoka Brazilian male karateka Brazilian practitioners of Brazilian jiu-jitsu People awarded a black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu Sportspeople from Niterói ADCC Hall of Fame inductees