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Ricardo Arona (July 17, 1978-) is a Brazilian mixed martial arts fighter. He is a member of Brazilian Top Team. He has a professional mixed martial arts record of 13-4-0 as of Sept 10, 06. He has competed in Pride Fighting Championships and RINGS in his mixed martial arts career.
Ricardo Arona is known for his strength and is considered one of the most physically powerful 205-pound fighters in MMA. However, he has been criticized by MMA fans for not attempting to finish fights, instead settling for decision wins by controlling his opponents on the ground from top position.
Ricardo Arona's popularity came from competing in the Abu Dhabi Combat Club submission wrestling competitions, where he won an open weight tournament as well as the 92kg (202 pound) tournament.
Soon after Abu Dhabi Combat Club, Arona joined RINGS, a Japanese mixed martial arts promotion. Arona's only loss in RINGS came at the hands of Fedor Emelianenko, who later went on to become Pride Fighting Championships' Heavyweight Champion. After losing to Fedor, Arona won his last three fights in RINGS.
After RINGS Ricardo Arona joined one of the largest mixed martial arts organisations in the world, Pride Fighting Championships. Arona started his career in Pride strong but after winning his first three Pride fights, he lost to Quinton Jackson in a spectacular knockout from a slam. Arona claimed that an illegal headbutt he received by Rampage at the end of the slam was what knocked him out. Four months later Arona returned to Pride and won his next 3 fights. On April 23 2005, Arona entered Pride's Middleweight (205lbs) Grand Prix, which began with an event named Total Elimination 05. Arona won his first Tournament fight against Dean Lister via an unanimous decision. His victory against Lister advanced him to the second round of the Tournament PRIDE FC CRITICAL COUNTDOWN 05. In the 2nd round of the GP Critical Countdown 05 he won his second tournament fight against the famous Japanese fighter Kazushi Sakuraba via TKO (Doctor Stoppage).
Arona was now in the semi final. His semi-final match was against his rival Wanderlei Silva which was held on Aug 28, 2005 in a show called PRIDE FINAL CONFLICT 05. Ricardo Arona surprised everyone when he defeated Silva (the Pride Middleweight Champion) via decision handing Silva his first middle-weight defeat in Pride. After defeating Wanderlei Silva, Arona advanced to finals where he faced rising MMA Middleweight star, Mauricio "Shogun" Rua. In a dominant performance, Rua defeated Ricardo Arona via KO in the first round.
On Dec 31, 05 (Pride FC SHOCKWAVE 05) Ricardo Arona fought Wanderlei Silva for a second time, this time for the Middleweight Championship. Ricardo Arona lost the match in a controversial split decision.
Arona's latest match was against Alistair Overeem on September 10, 2006 at PRIDE Final Conflict Absolute. 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 and showed complete domination throughout the bout. He continued his assault until Overeem tapped out from Arona's barrage of strikes.