Sherdog.com Preview: PRIDE Middleweight Grand Prix Critical Countdown
Ricardo Arona vs. Kazushi Sakuraba
Jun 21, 2005
ARONA: Brazilian jiu-jitsu stylist Ricardo Arona won the 2001 Abu
Dhabi Submission Wrestling Absolute & 2001 Under 98kg Class
division championships and the 2000 Abu Dhabi Under 98kg (under 216
pounds) division championship.
“The Brazilian Tiger” was the RINGS King of Kings 2001 middleweight class champion and trains with Murilo Bustamante, Ricardo Liborio, Mario Sperry, Rodrigo and Rogerio Nogueira and the rest of the Brazilian Top Team. He carries a record of 10-2 in MMA and makes his seventh appearance (5-1) in the ring of the PFC.
Ricardo began his MMA career fighting in the RINGS organization in
2000. He missed the first King of Kings tournament and took part in
the first Millennium Combine event against PRIDE veteran Andrei Kopylov. Ricardo pounded
Andrei, even rear mounting him and swinging free, but he could not
put the sambo stylist away. Arona took the decision and returned to
Millennium Combine 3 and beat UFC/PRIDE veteran Jeremy Horn.
He then he ran into Fedor Emelianenko. Fedor frustrated Arona, countering his skills on the ground and won a decision. He submitted PRIDE veteran Hiromitsu Kanehara in the RINGS World Title Series and defeated Horn for a second time on the Tenth Anniversary show. The four-man tournament that included Arona, Horn, UFC veteran Christopher Haseman and Ruas Vale Tudo fighter Gustavo Machado would wrap up in August of 2001. “Ximu” Machado advanced to the final but was stunned with strikes in less than 90 seconds, allowing Arona to claim his RINGS middleweight class championship title.
Arona looked rejuvenated in the third round and pulled out the split decision win. At PRIDE 20, Arona looked like he had worked a lot of the kinks out of his game and handed Dan Henderson a rare loss.
He faced Murilo Rua at PRIDE 23, taking another decision but injuries kept Arona from fighting for the next year and half. At Critical Countdown ’04, Quinton Jackson slammed him unconscious in a bout many feel he was winning. Jackson was almost KO’d on the mat from Arona’s guard but he was eventually able to turn it around and pull out the win.
At PRIDE 28, Ricardo faced Russian Top Team fighter Sergei Ignatev. The virtually unknown Ignatev lasted most of the first round before being choked out by “The Brazilian Tiger.” And in last April’s Grand Prix Total Elimination show, Arona faced his proposed Abu Dhabi Superfight opponent Dean Lister. The two went bell-to-bell with Arona advancing to the next round of the tournament via decision. Ricardo did not take part in the Abu Dhabi event and Lister wound up facing Jean Jacques Machado, beating him on points 8-0.
SAKURABA: Submission wrestler Kazushi Sakuraba is an UWFi Japanese Professional Wrestling veteran, a Team Kingdom Submission Wrestling veteran, and the first UFC Japan heavyweight tournament champion.
He fights out of the Takada Dojo in Japan and trains with PFC veterans Nobuhiko Takada, Hiromitsu Kanehara and Daijiro Matsui. All of these fighters began as Japanese professional wrestlers and were members of Team Kingdom in the UWF and UFWi. They “fought” in predominantly worked bouts that looked like real fights. This included matches with UFC veterans Paul Herrera and Eddie Ruiz, Pat Smith, Mark Hall and Kimo Leopoldo.
Sak is known as “The Gracie Hunter,” a moniker he earned defeating four Gracie family members in combat, and he is a legend in the sport. Kazushi carries a record of 16-8-1-1 in MMA while making his 25th appearance (15-7-1-1) in the PFC.
Sakuraba beat “Tank” Abbott protégé Herrera days before the first UFC Japan event. Sak and Abbott could’ve met in that tournament but “Tank” broke his hand facing Yoji Anjo and the controversial stoppage to the Sakuraba-Marcus Silveira fight prompted an immediate rematch in the final, which Sakuraba won by submission.
He moved from there to the PFC and has remained a fixture since PRIDE 2 in 1998. Sak defeated many of the top athletes in the sport including Carlos Newton, Vitor Belfort, Quinton Jackson and of course four Gracies: Royler, Royce, Renzo and Ryan.
Sakuraba lost in 2000 to Igor Vovchanchyn during the first PRIDE GP but it was due to exhaustion after his 90-minute bout with Royce Gracie. It wasn’t until the PRIDE 13 meeting with Wanderlei Silva that we saw cracks in the armor. Sak was dealt a crushing defeat at the hands (and knees) of Silva there, then again just eight months later at PRIDE 17 and finally (hopefully) at 2003 tournament Total Elimination show.
The uncrowned middleweight superstar fought an army of light heavyweight and heavyweight fighters including Jackson, Silva, Kevin Randleman, Rogerio Nogueira and Mirko Filipovic. He sustained severe damage in some fights and all of those bouts certainly took life off of his career.
Sakuraba actually faced only a few fighters his size in the last three years. These include bouts against French grappler Gilles Arsene, Chute Boxe fighter Antonio Schembri, and Korean Judo stylist Yoon Dong-sik all of whom he beat, (lost to Schembri once).
MY PICK: Arona. As much as I’d like to see Sakuraba advance, he is not the fighter he was years ago and clearly not a “middleweight” in the PRIDE sense. He should push Takada to organize a real middleweight tournament that Sak would actually have a chance of winning. Arona is a talented grappler and has shown some solid striking skills in the stand-up game. He could throw a monkey wrench into this perceived grappler’s dream and work to finish Sak on the feet. It might also make for an earlier night than taking a risky ride on the mat with a submission wizard like Sakuraba. I feel it will be Arona by TKO from strikes in the first round.
“The Brazilian Tiger” was the RINGS King of Kings 2001 middleweight class champion and trains with Murilo Bustamante, Ricardo Liborio, Mario Sperry, Rodrigo and Rogerio Nogueira and the rest of the Brazilian Top Team. He carries a record of 10-2 in MMA and makes his seventh appearance (5-1) in the ring of the PFC.
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He then he ran into Fedor Emelianenko. Fedor frustrated Arona, countering his skills on the ground and won a decision. He submitted PRIDE veteran Hiromitsu Kanehara in the RINGS World Title Series and defeated Horn for a second time on the Tenth Anniversary show. The four-man tournament that included Arona, Horn, UFC veteran Christopher Haseman and Ruas Vale Tudo fighter Gustavo Machado would wrap up in August of 2001. “Ximu” Machado advanced to the final but was stunned with strikes in less than 90 seconds, allowing Arona to claim his RINGS middleweight class championship title.
He debuted in the PFC at PRIDE 16 and fought a back-and-forth
battle with Lion’s Den fighter Guy
Mezger. Early on Ricardo appeared rough around the edges and
couldn’t take Mezger down without a great deal of effort. Mezger
punched through Arona’s ground game and landed a beautiful kick in
the throat in the second round.
Arona looked rejuvenated in the third round and pulled out the split decision win. At PRIDE 20, Arona looked like he had worked a lot of the kinks out of his game and handed Dan Henderson a rare loss.
He faced Murilo Rua at PRIDE 23, taking another decision but injuries kept Arona from fighting for the next year and half. At Critical Countdown ’04, Quinton Jackson slammed him unconscious in a bout many feel he was winning. Jackson was almost KO’d on the mat from Arona’s guard but he was eventually able to turn it around and pull out the win.
At PRIDE 28, Ricardo faced Russian Top Team fighter Sergei Ignatev. The virtually unknown Ignatev lasted most of the first round before being choked out by “The Brazilian Tiger.” And in last April’s Grand Prix Total Elimination show, Arona faced his proposed Abu Dhabi Superfight opponent Dean Lister. The two went bell-to-bell with Arona advancing to the next round of the tournament via decision. Ricardo did not take part in the Abu Dhabi event and Lister wound up facing Jean Jacques Machado, beating him on points 8-0.
SAKURABA: Submission wrestler Kazushi Sakuraba is an UWFi Japanese Professional Wrestling veteran, a Team Kingdom Submission Wrestling veteran, and the first UFC Japan heavyweight tournament champion.
He fights out of the Takada Dojo in Japan and trains with PFC veterans Nobuhiko Takada, Hiromitsu Kanehara and Daijiro Matsui. All of these fighters began as Japanese professional wrestlers and were members of Team Kingdom in the UWF and UFWi. They “fought” in predominantly worked bouts that looked like real fights. This included matches with UFC veterans Paul Herrera and Eddie Ruiz, Pat Smith, Mark Hall and Kimo Leopoldo.
Sak is known as “The Gracie Hunter,” a moniker he earned defeating four Gracie family members in combat, and he is a legend in the sport. Kazushi carries a record of 16-8-1-1 in MMA while making his 25th appearance (15-7-1-1) in the PFC.
Sakuraba beat “Tank” Abbott protégé Herrera days before the first UFC Japan event. Sak and Abbott could’ve met in that tournament but “Tank” broke his hand facing Yoji Anjo and the controversial stoppage to the Sakuraba-Marcus Silveira fight prompted an immediate rematch in the final, which Sakuraba won by submission.
He moved from there to the PFC and has remained a fixture since PRIDE 2 in 1998. Sak defeated many of the top athletes in the sport including Carlos Newton, Vitor Belfort, Quinton Jackson and of course four Gracies: Royler, Royce, Renzo and Ryan.
Sakuraba lost in 2000 to Igor Vovchanchyn during the first PRIDE GP but it was due to exhaustion after his 90-minute bout with Royce Gracie. It wasn’t until the PRIDE 13 meeting with Wanderlei Silva that we saw cracks in the armor. Sak was dealt a crushing defeat at the hands (and knees) of Silva there, then again just eight months later at PRIDE 17 and finally (hopefully) at 2003 tournament Total Elimination show.
The uncrowned middleweight superstar fought an army of light heavyweight and heavyweight fighters including Jackson, Silva, Kevin Randleman, Rogerio Nogueira and Mirko Filipovic. He sustained severe damage in some fights and all of those bouts certainly took life off of his career.
Sakuraba actually faced only a few fighters his size in the last three years. These include bouts against French grappler Gilles Arsene, Chute Boxe fighter Antonio Schembri, and Korean Judo stylist Yoon Dong-sik all of whom he beat, (lost to Schembri once).
MY PICK: Arona. As much as I’d like to see Sakuraba advance, he is not the fighter he was years ago and clearly not a “middleweight” in the PRIDE sense. He should push Takada to organize a real middleweight tournament that Sak would actually have a chance of winning. Arona is a talented grappler and has shown some solid striking skills in the stand-up game. He could throw a monkey wrench into this perceived grappler’s dream and work to finish Sak on the feet. It might also make for an earlier night than taking a risky ride on the mat with a submission wizard like Sakuraba. I feel it will be Arona by TKO from strikes in the first round.
