Sherdog’s Top 10: Best Fighters Never to Compete in the UFC

6. Ricardo Arona

Arona was not always the most pleasing fighter to watch, but no one can discount the effectiveness of his style. One of the top fighters to ever come out of Brazil, he was a three-time Abu Dhabi Combat Club Submission Wrestling World Championships gold medalist and used his world-class grappling skills to ascend the MMA ladder.

The Brazilian Top Team rep signed with Rings in 2000 and suffered a loss to the great Fedor Emelianenko in his third professional bout. Arona would not lose again for nearly four years. Pride scooped up “The Brazilian Tiger” and watched him go on to victories over Dan Henderson, Murilo Rua, Kazushi Sakuraba, Wanderlei Silva and Alistair Overeem. Arona reached the Pride 2005 middleweight grand prix final, where he was the last victim of Mauricio Rua’s historic tournament run.

Arona fought only four more times after his defeat to “Shogun” and disappeared from the MMA scene following a unanimous decision victory over Marvin Eastman in September 2009.

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