Ricardo Arona

Ricardo Arona (born 17 July 1978) is a Brazilian former professional mixed martial artist, submission grappler and 4th degree Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ) black belt practitioner.

A two-time World IBJJF Jiu-Jitsu champion in the lower belts, Arona is a World black belt medallist and a triple-crown winner of the ADCC Submission Fighting World Championship (winning his weight class, the absolute division, and the superfight).

Arona was born on 17 July 1978 in Niteroi, Brazil.

He trained in Judo and Karate before transitioning into Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Capoeira after seeing a Vale Tudo 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 BJJ and Submission Wrestling.

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

Soon after ADCC, Arona joined Fighting Network RINGS, a Japanese mixed martial arts promotion.

His debut match would against aging Sambo champion Andrei Kopylov, who Arona defeated by unanimous decision after controlling him positionally for most of the match.

He then beat Jeremy Horn 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 Catch Wrestling expert Hiromitsu Kanehara.

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

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.

After being noticed in RINGS, Arona was offered a contract to join PRIDE Fighting Championships.

He started his career there strong, defeating Pancrase veteran Guy Mezger, 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, Dan Henderson.

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, 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 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 rear-naked choke 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 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.

A professional MMA fighter from 2000 until 2009, Arona competed in PRIDE Fighting Championships, RINGS 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.

Arona has notable wins in both MMA and submission grappling competition over Tito Ortiz, Jeff Monson, Renato Sobral, Vitor Belfort, Mark Kerr, Kazushi Sakuraba, Wanderlei Silva, Dan Henderson, Alistair Overeem, Murilo Rua, Jeremy Horn, Guy Mezger, and Dean Lister.

His four ADCC titles and his clean record of 13–0 after not losing a single point in a match, earned Arona in 2021 a place in the inaugural class of the ADCC Hall of Fame,

On 23 April 2005, Arona entered PRIDE's Middleweight (205 lbs) Grand Prix.

He won his first fight in the tournament against Dean Lister 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 Kazushi Sakuraba 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.