(Dude, can I finish taking a piss before we talk about this?)

Former PRIDE middleweight champion Ricardo Arona is planning his return to the UFC, even if the promotion hasn’t decided whether or not they want him.

"The Brazilian Tiger" told TATAME that he is planning another trip to Las Vegas this weekend to attend UFC 116 so he can meet again with Dana White to discuss with the UFC president the prospect of one day fighting in the UFC’s Octagon.

It worked for James Toney, so why not for a guy who was once one of the top competitors at 205 in PRIDE?


According to Arona, the first meeting didn’t yield the results he wanted, so he’s taking the "if at first you don’t succeed" approach.

"I told him I wanted to fight on his event I and wanted to know what the odds of fighting on UFC were. He was pretty cool, told me he liked me and it could be a good idea, but that he would have to check it with UFC’s matchmaker, Joe Silva. My idea is to get back there, watch another event and talk to him again. There were no promises made, what happened [last time] was [we had] a nice talk about something that could happen in the future."

Still recovering from a knee injury he sustained in his decision win over Marvin Eastman in Bitetti Combat last September, Arona says that White mentioned he would like to see him take another bout before deciding on whether or not  to sign him.

“Due to my knee injury, I’ll only be able to fight on the end of the year. [Dana] commented something about me doing a fight before joining UFC’s crew, but there was no promise."

Considering the overall lack of dominance fighters from PRIDE have demonstrated in the UFC, coupled with the fact that that Arona is 31 years old, 2-3 in his last five fights and has only fought three times since 2006, I can understand the UFC’s reluctance to jump at the opportunity to sign him, but something in me wants to see the rubbermatch between him and Shogun.