We reported earlier that Ricardo Arona might be fighting again very soon, so in the spirit of Ricardo jumping back into the fray, let’s check out a couple of his battles.

First, the Arona/Rampage Jackson fight from 2004, which went down at PRIDE – Critical Countdown and was cloaked in controversy. At the 1:10 mark, Arona lands a kick and several shots to Rampage’s melon that seems to temporarily KO Jackson. After pleading with the ref to stop the fight before Rampage pulled it together, Arona found himself again on the bottom-side of the grappling match. Exactly a minute later, Rampage power-slams Arona — which included an accidental, yet illegal head-butt — to end the fight.

And here’s Arona’s last fight, which happened at PRIDE 34 around a year ago. In case your memory is as shitty as mine, the handy internet tells us that Arona got KTFO by Sokoudjou at 1:59 of the first round.

Here’s hoping when Arona comes back he retains the form he showed against guys like Kazushi Sakuraba, Dean Lister, Dan Henderson, Murilo Rua, Guy Mezger, and Jeremy Horn (twice). Only time will tell…

(Arona, coming soon to a cage near you.)

PRIDE vet Ricardo Arona has stated he’ll be back at it very soon. It’s been exactly a year and a day since Sokoudjou KO’d him in the first round at PRIDE 34 and Arona says he spent the time off training and getting his shit together — my words, not his. He has been working on his physical training as well as becoming a better student of the game, and now both US and Japanese organizations are courting him to fight. So he’s weighing his options. While no specific date was revealed or a possible opponent named, a fight for the native of Brazil appears on the horizon.

Any fighter who is outta’ there for more than a year is prone to collecting a little rust, but Arona, who is 13-5 overall, isn’t worried about losing his timing:

Undoubtedly, if you compete all the time you’ll get always better at the ring, but I’m not worried with this kind of challenge. Although I don’t get into the rings, I’ve faced challenges all day in my life, in everything I do. Being well prepared, the mind will be ready too and I’m not worried about that, I’m worried of being 100%.

Good theory, but the challenges I face in everyday life — like pretending I’m not looking at the cashier’s boobs while she rings up my case of beer and pound of jerky — doesn’t really prepare me for anything other than avoiding being creepy while in public. Maybe Arona will have a different experience.

Since the downfall of PRIDE, Arona has been linked to the UFC, Yarennoka!, and HCF events, but none of those panned out. A bout of Dengue Fever further kept Arona out of action. If you don’t know anything about Dengue Fever, it’s not the start of a good week — unless you enjoy a good rash.

Moving on…“Shaolin” Ribeiro is also ready for action again and says he is recouped from his eye injury. He is slated to fight on a DREAM card in the near future, but it’s not clear who he will fight or which event it will be. “Shaolin” had this to say:

“I’m training full-contact fighting as usual and can do everything. My eye’s 100% and this was just another injury like any other. I should fight in April or May, I’m ready for them to call me, whether its a normal match, part of the GP or a reserve fight, I have a contract with K-1 and I’m ready. On the winners of the first phase of the GP, I wasn’t suprised by anything, all the ones to win were really tough, including Eddie Alvarez who beat Andre Dida. I already knew of him from Bodog. He’s really tough and I knew that if he wasn’t doing well standing, he’d take him down.”

The Brazilian lightweight is 19-2 overall and is a veteran of Shooto, Cage Rage, and K-1 Heroes.

(Props Tatame, FightLinker)

(Maybe this legal hottie can sort this shit out.)

It’s only been a couple of months since Zuffa/Pride FC Worldwide filed suit against the former heads of PRIDE because of their alleged defrauding of millions from Pride’s sell to the Fertittas. Dream Stage Entertainment’s president, Nobuyuki Sakakibara, has been silent in the case, but Dream Stage Holdings filed for dismissal since they were not a party to the previous contracts.

Now, Sakakibara, Ubon, and Dream Stage Holdings have sued Pride FC Worldwide — the Nevada and Japanese branches — and have laid down the legal to the Fertitta Bros, too. Ubon is a stock company in Japan owned by Sakakibara, who also owns 95% of DSH. The suit filing went down in Vegas on the 2nd of this month. Sherdog has a full rundown of the mess:

In an ironic twist, the motion accused Zuffa of including the DSE Nevada Corporation in an effort to defeat diversity jurisdiction. Zuffa is currently contesting a similar legal strategy employed by HDNet Fights in its suit against Zuffa for declaratory judgment on Randy Couture’s promotional contract.

The suit filed by the former owners of Pride in federal court, under diversity jurisdiction, seeks damages for breach of the asset purchase and consulting agreements that were part of the Pride transaction, as well as fraudulent and negligent misrepresentation and breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing.

The complaint alleges that Pride was sold to the owners of the UFC with the promise that the Pride brand would be maintained as a “global top-level brand.” This promise allegedly resulted in the former owners’ decision to sell to the Fertittas despite more lucrative financial offers from other suitors.

According to the complaint, Sakakibara also met with another “company which promotes martial arts related events, an operator of another sports-related business and investors in the entertainment industry, and received various offers to purchase Pride or to enter into business partnerships with plaintiffs.”

However, the suit alleges that the defendants had no intention of fulfilling that promise.

One of Kharitonov‘s best performances, from PRIDE Total Elimination in April 2004. What was expected to be mainly a grappling match between Sergei and Ninja turned into a wild slugfest, with both fighters throwing leather until Rua’s legs give out at the 1:58 mark. (Also check out Kharitonov’s butter-smooth judo toss at 0:50.) We can’t wait until this dude steps into the ring with Mirko…

Classic shit from MMA Posters & Collectibles (go there and spend!) via MMA.tv:

(Shockwave 2005)

(Heavyweight GP 2004)

(Bushido 3)

And our favorite…

(Does the carpet match the…never mind.)

Ex-UFC heavyweight champ and PRIDE personality Kevin Randleman has announced on MMAWeekly Radio that he’s “in” with two organizations and will battle very soon. “The Monster” confirmed that he’s joined up with Global Fighting Championships and said of his debut: “As of right now, I am fighting Jeff Monson, June 21 in North Carolina in Bobcat Arena.” Cool, but I’ve been to Bobcat Arena and the toilets are clogged 99% of the time, trust me. I’m just saying.

Jeff Monson and shit-stuffed North Carolina johns aside, Randleman will first jet over to a place he’s quite familiar with: Japan. The fighter battled in the country for years in PRIDE and will do so again:

“My first fight is going to be May 18 in the new Japanese organization, it is not Pride, (but) World Victory Road,” he continued.

Randleman, who hasn’t fought since October 2006 in a loss to Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, has not yet been given an opponent for the World Victory Road fight.

World Victory Road held its first event on Wednesday and announced that both Randleman and Roger Gracie would be fighting on its May event, but it is not yet clear that they would be facing each other.

Glad he clarified that it’s not PRIDE because we were ’bout to get confused since PRIDE has been shut-the-fuck-down. Anywho, according to a Randleman rep an opponent has not been named for the WVR event and contract details are still being hammered out. “The Monster” was 4-6 in PRIDE and 4-3 in the UFC. He is a ho-hum 16-12 overall. Yes, I said ho-hum. It’s the new “sucks”, so get on-board. I was one of the first geniuses to break the term “bitchin”, so I know what I’m doing.

Has anybody come across videos from Sengoku yet? I’ve been checking throughout the day and have so far come up with bupkus. But while looking for the Gomi/Ludwig fight, I did come across this match between Gomi and Jens Pulver from PRIDE Shockwave 2004 (12/31/04) that I’d never seen before. It’s a straight-up boxing match that stays standing until Gomi finds his distance and knocks Pulver out, collecting his fifth win in a ten-fight PRIDE win-streak.

Arguably the best fight from the best fight card of 2007: Dan Henderson’s romper-stomper against Wanderlei Silva for the middleweight title at PRIDE 33, last February 24th in Las Vegas. If you’re calling the Silva/Henderson match for Hendo, I have no beef with you; anyone who can put on a performance like this is capable of others like it. And that knockout punch was a thing of beauty…

Part 1

Part 2

(Cro Cop still without an opponent for DREAM 1.)

The new Japanese DREAM organization from FEG and DSE has announced – via press conference and their website – the addition of three more fights to their debut event, DREAM 1, on March 15th. The show will of course go down in Japan.

Gesias “JZ” Calvancante vs. Shinya Aoki has already been announced for DREAM’s 16-man lightweight tourney, and now they have added Tatsuya Kawajiri against Kultar “Black Mamba” Gill, Joachim Hansen versus Kotetsu Boku, and Kazuyuki Miyata facing Luiz Firmino. Andre Amade, Mitsuhiro Ishida, Caol Uno, Gilbert Melendez, Artur Oumakhanov, and Jung Bu-Kyung, are all expected to fight in the tournament as well but opponents have not been named.

Aside from the Lightweight Grand Prix, Cro Cop may also fight at the event. No opponent has been named, although it’s being reported that Ray Sefo has turned down the fight – via the Xtreme Couture blog. The fighter didn’t feel he had enough time to prepare since the match was just offered to him last week. He does hope to fight Cro Cop, maybe even this summer. So a Cro Cop fight is still up in the air for March 15th.

We caught a glimpse of him in today’s highlight reel, and some of you (justifiably) felt that he should have been included on this list — we’re speaking of course about Paulo César da Silva, a.k.a. Giant Silva, the 7’2″ mixed martial artist and pro wrestler who compiled a 2-6 record in PRIDE and K-1. In April 2006, he faced Ikuhisa Minowa at PRIDE Bushido; despite having a 17-inch height disadvantage, Minowa brilliantly somersaulted into a takedown and, unbelievably, controlled Silva on the ground until he could end the fight with knees to Silva’s body and head. When it comes to sad freak shows, this was one of the best…

(The Fertittas: “Convicted criminals are people, too.”)

Props to BloodyElbow for spotting this Xyience piece recently posted by MMA Memories. We’ve been detailing the shitstorm created by UFC mega-sponsor Xyience when they filed for Chapter 11 a while back, including the Fertittas lawsuit against blogger/reporter Rich Bergeron for his “findings” and allegations against them – which basically means they’re worried. The aforementioned article throws some more light on the background of Xyience and founder Russell Pike – who you’ll recall was recently accused of death threats against the company’s managers and board members – thickening the Fertittas shady pot of shit.

Some of the backstory:

Russell Pike, who founded Xyience and oversaw its involvement with the UFC for some time, is a convicted felon, having pleaded guilty to grand theft and forgery in California in 1987 and of money laundering in 1999. Not only that, according to a “Desist and Refrain Order” filed by the California Department of Corporations in September of last year, pursuant to the sale of Xyience stock, Pike suffered a default judgment in a civil action filed against him by The Mirage, a hotel-casino licensed by the Nevada State Gaming Commission, when he allegedly wrote them $300,000 in bad checks over a two-day period in 1995.

And that is very interesting indeed, especially in light of the Fertittas’ recent lawsuit filing against Dream Stage Entertainment, the former owners of PRIDE, which the UFC purchased last year. In the complaint, the Fertittas allege that the rumored involvement of some of Dream Stage’s people with elements of the Japanese Yakuza “could have a detrimental effect upon the Purchasing Parties’ (the Fertittas’) affiliates’ gaming licenses (for the uninitiated, the Fertitta family controls Station Casinos Inc, which has about 17 properties in the United States).”

The obvious contradictions follow the pattern of stupidity exhibited now on an almost daily basis by the UFC’s execs. It’s been laced with “cloak-n-dagger” elements from the beginning, but this information makes it almost laughable. Bringing Pike and his prison-stripped ass into direct involvement with promotions is just asking for shit to rain down on you. The MMA Memories post suggests the gaming commission probe the many findings and ask the questions that must be answered by the Fertittas surrounding this whole mess. We tend to agree – but as much as we want the UFC bullshit to stop, this is also some serious illegal activity that could damage MMA promotions – which then filters down to the fans. I blame “The Man” and his stop-at-nothing greed.

Chuck Liddell is now saying that his next fight could be against Shogun in June — which would be a hell of a lot more interesting than Jardine. Since we haven’t featured Rua on F.o.t.D. lately, here’s his match with Alistair Overeem at PRIDE 33 (2/24/07). Though Overeem dominated early with his striking, Rua eventually got the Demolition Man on his back and punished him with strikes from the top. The fight starts at the 5:14 mark:

UPDATE: The Liddell/Rua fight is official. Nice! Judging from their last fights, the Iceman will smoke Shogun like a pork shoulder…

We mentioned this one yesterday. Here’s Aoki’s dismantling of Hansen at PRIDE Shockwave 2006 (12/31/06), and though Aoki’s rainbow stretch-pants are ridiculous, his skills are no joke. Check out his Penn-like flexibility as he works for the ultra-rare gogoplata submission; in our opinion, there’s only six welterweights in the world who could deal with him…

In honor of today’s juicy rumor, here’s the 5/5/06 PRIDE fight between Barnett and A. Emelianenko. The ten-minute first round was an action-packed standup war, with both fighters exchanging bombs. But Barnett out-hustled Aleks in the second, taking him to the ground and working for a submission. As we’ve seen before, Aleks isn’t too awesome on his back. But we’d definitely open our wallets to witness these two go at it again…

Don Frye’s most recent fight, at PRIDE 34 on 4/8/07, was notable for three reasons: First, it kicked off with the best/gayest staredown in MMA history. Second, Frye and Thompson briefly locked into a hockey-punching spree that recalled Frye’s legendary brawl with Yoshihiro Takayama. And finally, it ended in a notorious late-stoppage, with Frye getting whaled on against the ropes for a solid minute before the ref stepped in. All in all, it was one of the most memorable fights of 2007. Thompson’s next match would result in a 10-second knockout loss to Neil Grove…

Discussing Ken Shamrock’s recent loss history inspired us to dig up the video of his first-round loss to Kazushi Sakuraba, which went down at PRIDE 30 in October 2005. And watching the video reminded us of something we love/hate about Ken — his constant protest of early stoppages. Dude, maybe the refs wouldn’t step in so often if you could get hit without looking like you’ve lost consciousness. It’s a tough skill to learn, but an important one nonetheless.

Another classic Rampage jam from PRIDE, this one against Ikuhisa “The Punk” Minowa at Shockwave 2003 (12/31/03). I’d argue that Quinton Jackson officially became a star when he brushed away the hand of the referee who was checking his junk at the beginning. (The man certainly does not play that shit!) It’s an exciting fight from start to finish, featuring no less than three body-slams from Jackson, repeated knees to the head, and a sort-of-early stoppage that compels Minowa to get up in Jackson’s face then immediately think better of it.

Apologies for the lack of updates this morning — CP was experiencing major server eff-ups. But we’re back in business now, and to reward your patience, we’d like to present this video of Quinton Jackson’s classic battle with Ricardo Arona at PRIDE Critical Countdown in June 2004. Watch as Jackson is knocked out cold at around the 5:30 mark; luckily, the referee allows the fight to continue, and Rampage regains his faculties enough to deliver a WWE-caliber power-slam that immediately ended the fight. You’ll also notice that at this point in his career, Rampage dog-barked after a victory, Arsenio Hall audience-member-style, as opposed to his current wolf-howl.

It was the beginning of the Axe-Murderer’s current career-slide, and one of the greatest beat-downs in recent MMA history. In this open-weight match at PRIDE Final Conflict Absolute 2006, Mirko Cro Cop swarms Wanderlei Silva like a rabid bear until he sets up a signature head kick at the end of the first round, leaving Silva in a mental haze that followed him through his subsequent matches against Dan Henderson and Chuck Liddell. We highly recommend you skip past 2:17-5:45, which has to be the longest mid-fight medical clearance of all time.

We’re lovin’ the referee-cam perspective in this video of Cro Cop taking on Vovchanchyn at PRIDE Total Elimination (8/10/03). Sure, it made us so dizzy we thought we were going to barf, but it’s worth it to feel like you’re actually in the ring as Cro Cop delivers one of his lights-out head-kicks…

By CagePotato contributor Kipp Tribble

10. Jens Pulver vs John Lewis (15 seconds)
UFC 28: High Stakes was the venue for this classic KO. The left hook that Lil’ Evil lands is the stuff that bar-fight dreams are made of. Lewis hits the mat and appears to want to fight the ref for a few seconds until deciding he’s better off lying still. Not much to it, but damn what a shot to the face – and one that pushed Lewis into early retirement.

9. Gary Goodridge vs Paul Herrerra (13 seconds).
Way back in 1996 at UFC 8: David vs. Goliath, Goodridge squared up against Herrera in what was being billed as a “solid match.” If by “solid” they meant a guy getting elbowed almost to death, then solid it was. Goodridge quickly wrapped Herrera up and was on his way to a submission, but decided, “Why not? I’ll just try and kill him instead.” Double G then proceeds to land elbow after elbow to Herrera’s temple, rendering him pretty damn lifeless.

8. Aleksander Emelianenko vs. James Thompson (11 seconds)
Well, this one just makes us smile. First you have James Thompson, built like a Mack truck and shaking with fury. Then you have doughy Aleksander Emelianenko, who looks like he just woke up from a nap. As they meet in the center of the ring, Thompson gives Emelianenko a stare-down that would crush cement; Emelianenko calmly wipes a booger off his upper lip. If you haven’t seen what happens next, we won’t spoil it for you…

Right now, as you go about the normal activities of your day, Quinton Jackson is praying his ass off that Chuck Liddell beats Wanderlei Silva at UFC 79. Because if Silva wins, he’ll probably be next in line after Forrest Griffin to challenge Rampage for the light-heavyweight title, and if that happens, there might be a repeat of the brutality that befell the current UFC light-heavy champ at the Pride “Final Conflict” Grand Prix in November 2003. If you have the stomach for it, watch the video below (and turn down your speakers now, because the soundtrack is dreadful):

Their re-match a year later ended the exact same way. Now we know why Rampage occasionally sounds developmentally disabled…

How does a guy with only a 4-1 MMA record find himself ranked #6 on MMA Weekly’s list of the best current light heavyweights? Simple: When he’s Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou, a judo champion and Team Quest member whose last two fights resulted in quick knockouts of MMA superstars Ricardo Arona and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira. This bout against Arona went down in April of this year; “The African Assassin” is scheduled to make his UFC debut next month at UFC 79 against Lyoto Machida (11-0), who has scored wins over Rich Franklin, Stephan Bonnar, and B.J. Penn. Should be a real corker.

If you’re only a casual fan of MMA, you’d be forgiven for not knowing that Fedor Emelianenko has a younger brother who is covered with Russian prison tattoos, proudly sports a mullet, and is a total badass in his own right. Though Aleksander Emelianenko has suffered notable losses to Mirko “Cro Cop” Filopovic, Josh Barnett, and Fabricio Werdum, he was one of PRIDE’s brightest stars, and takes after his brother when it comes to his aggressive attack and heavy hands. Aleksander is possibly the only MMA fighter to ever score three consecutive knockouts in fights lasting less than 30 seconds, which he did against James Thompson (12 seconds), Ricardo Morais (15 seconds), and Rene Rooze (28 seconds) in 2004-5. For a taste of the fury, check out the videos below, which show his fight against Morais, and his most recent match against Dan Bobish, which took place last month at a Hardcore Championship Fighting event in Calgary.

(Aleksander Emelianenko vs. Ricardo Morais, 4/3/05)

(Aleksander Emelianenko vs. Dan Bobish, 10/19/07)

Bob Sapp vs. Antonio “Minotauro” Nogueira, at PRIDE Shockwave (8/28/02).