Five years ago a Cameroon national judo team member by the name of “Sokoudjou” shocked the world by taking out highly-touted PRIDE veterans Antonio Rogerio Nogueira and Ricardo Arona. One fight prior to his coming out party, “The African Assassin” met up with an equally tough Brazilian named Glover Texeira, who at the time was training with UFC light heavyweight champion Chuck Liddell at “The Pit” in San Luis Obispo, CA. Texeira utilized his superior stand-up to test Sokoudjou’s chin and let’s just say that Rameau’s jaw wasn’t prepared for the pop quiz.

Texeira has been on the UFC’s radar for some time. Chuck Liddell told me a year ago that the light heavyweight, who sometimes moonlights as a heavyweight would likely be Octagon-bound as soon as he sorted out his visa issues, but he’s been stuck in holding pattern fighting on regional Brazilian cards. Hopefully the 31-year-old makes it Stateside some time soon. The UFC’s light heavyweight class could use a shake-up.

(Arona’s finally ready to put down the surfboard.)

Ricardo Arona has been pledging a return to action pretty much every year since his last bout in 2009 against Marvin Eastman at Bitetti Combat 4, but has failed to deliver on the promise. According to the former Rings middleweight champion and former PRIDE standout, by “this year” he actually meant “next year,” meaning 2012. If the world doesn’t end like some whack jobs believe it will, Arona says we can expect to see him make his triumphant return.

In an interview he did recently with Globo, “The Brazilian Tiger” says the reason he’s had to push back his MMA return was that life got in the way, but that he’s had no shortage of offers from promotions.

“I went back to prepare myself physically and to finish building a training center in my house in Niterói. It’s pretty big and full. I want to return early next year. First I want to be ready to compete in anything, God willing,” Arona explains. “My goal is to do that, no doubt. I received an invitation from Strikeforce and several national events, but did not close anything. I’m hoping to be ready to return.”

(“Screw what I said about business as usual. Let’s make some fan-fucking-tastic fights for this card.”)

With the UFC’s landmark Rio card fast approaching, we thought we’d sit down and think about a handful of bouts we as fans (and pseudo-reporters) would REALLY like to see added to the card.

(We’re looking at you Royce. Seriously. Walk away, dude.)

Check out what we came up with after the jump.

(I don’t do this for everybody, but I’m willing to drop my asking price to $250,000 and a 10% stake in the UFC. Have you seen my fight with Fedor?)

According to Ricardo Arona, he is only one win away from getting an invite to the UFC, but finding a promotion to fight for hasn’t been easy for the former PRIDE middleweight champion.

"That conversation with Dana White was basically about it, that I’d fight again in other event to recover my rhythm, and it’d be a good thing for me. I’d like to fight on UFC, I feel like I’m ready for it, but if I have to fight again first, there’s no problem with that, too," he recently told Tatame’s Guilherme Cruz. "[War on the Mainland] called me about fighting [at one of their] events, but there’re nothing set. I don’t know what tomorrow will bring, but I want to fight abroad, not in Brazil."

(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?

("So, do you chicks party?")

Here’s one for the Pride nerds out there: A report from MMAFighting.com on Saturday says the UFC may have softened its stance on Ricardo Arona enough to slide a contract his way some time in the near future.  This news comes after a report by Tatame.com last year quoted company president Dana White saying some not-so-complimentary things about the streaky light heavyweight.  Now Arona says he hopes to make his Octagon debut by October or November.

(Murilo "Ninja" Rua wrecks Alex "The Brazilian Killa" Stiebling in 39 seconds. Fight starts at the 0:22 mark. Props to TheGarv. More videos to come…)

BITETTI COMBAT: NORDESTE 4 (9/12; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
– Ricardo Arona def. Marvin Eastman via unanimous decision
– Paulo Filho def. Alex Schoenauer via unanimous decision
– Pedro Rizzo def. Jeff Monson via unanimous decision
– Murilo “Ninja” Rua def. Alex Stiebling via KO, 0:39 of round 1
– Milton Viera def. Luciano Azavedo via split decision
– Fabio Maldonado def. Vitor Miranda via unanimous decision
– Glover Texeira def. Leonardo Nascimento via submission (guillotine choke), 3:18 of round 1
– Luis Dutra Jr. def. Henrique Nogueira via TKO, round 1
– Cassiano Tytschyo def. Fausto Black via submission (guillotine choke), round 1
– Alexandre Pimentel def. Luciano “Izzy” Correa via unanimous decision

(All right guys, just flip a coin for it.  Loser fights Fedor.  Winner gets an ice cream sandwich.)

Remember when the fun trend among MMA fighters was to declare their desire and willingness to fight Fedor Emelianenko, despite not being in the same organization or even weight class?  Well, somebody better go call all those bastards up, because Fedor needs a replacement opponent in a hurry.  With Josh Barnett getting the no-go from the California State Athletic Commission, Affliction is said to be looking at four possible replacements, which range from unlikely to damn near impossible to not that credible of a challenger even if they did agree to it. 

But why stop with the merely implausible or ill-advised possibilities?  Clearly, this is a total shit-show of a problem that requires a total shit-show of a solution.  Allow us to examine the possibilities…

(Be sure to click the "HQ" button for higher quality.)

With my girlfriend and dog out of town this weekend, I found myself with a lot of time on my hands. So, I decided to eff around with iMovie and put together the above highlight reel of Kazushi Sakuraba‘s most brutal beatings. (Has there ever been a fighter whose victories were so beautiful and whose defeats were so ugly?) I’m no Genghis Con, and most of the footage was taken from low-quality YouTube clips to begin with, but let me know what you think, and if you have any Sakuraba fans in your life, please pass it along.

(BG)

(Don’t fear Arona.  Fear his freaking cat-like reflexes.)

Hey there, people who have been following MMA for more than just the last six months, remember Ricardo Arona?  Muscular Brazilian guy, had a rivalry with Wanderlei Silva, got knocked out by Sokoudjou…any of this ringing any bells?  Well now that Dana White has more or less ruled out any possibility of signing Arona to the UFC because, hell, even Dana thinks he can beat Arona, the big man is looking at making a return to action soon, possibly in Strikeforce.

10. Randy Couture vs. Gabriel Gonzaga
(UFC 74, 8/25/07)

At 44 years of age, Randy Couture was the one who was supposed to look busted up after his heavyweight championship match with 29-year-old Brazilian wrecking ball Gabriel Gonzaga. But in one of the greatest triumphs of his career, Couture broke down the bigger, younger fighter with his wrestling and dirty boxing. About three minutes into the first round, blood began to pour out of Gonzaga’s shattered nose, giving Randy’s back a nice, red coat. The steady flow interrupts the challenger’s breathing and vision, leading to a brutal ground-and-pound finish in the third.

9. Robbie Lawler vs. Scott Smith
(EliteXC: Unfinished Business, 7/26/08)

In the second round of their EliteXC middleweight championship do-over, Scott Smith nailed Robbie Lawler with a series of standing elbows that opened up an ugly gash on the top of Lawler’s head. With blood pouring out of the wound, Lawler turned up the intensity, doing his best to finish Smith before a doctor could stop the fight. About 90 seconds later, he succeeded — but not before a spray of “plasma” fell into commentator Mauro Ranallo’s lap. The video doesn’t really do it justice; you should also check out this photo from the fight, and this photo of the aftermath.

8. Chase Beebe vs. Eddie Wineland
(WEC 26, 3/24/07)

It may have been the most grisly demolition of a cauliflower ear in MMA history. Midway through a five-round bantamweight title match, challenger Chase Beebe dropped an elbow from the top that burst Eddie Wineland’s overripe right ear, causing it to spray blood several feet across the mat. Wineland, who had already suffered multiple cuts near his eyes from Beebe’s precision striking, soldiered on to the fifth-round bell with what appeared to be a gaping hole in the side of his head. Beebe took home the belt and Wineland hasn’t fought in the WEC since.

After the jump: Things really start to get disgusting.

From PRIDE Critical Countdown 2005 (6/26/2005). Because not much is going on this morning and I’ve been wanting to run the fight that produced this:

From Sakuraba’s divebomb attacks in the first round, to Arona’s relentless knees, to the “holy shit” moment when the second frame is over and Saku’s roadkill-face emerges, it’s a minor classic. Enjoy.

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)

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.

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.