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Report: Ricardo Arona In Talks With The UFC

Former PRIDE fighter Ricardo Arona

Former PRIDE fighter Ricardo Arona

From Tatame:

"I can’t talk about this project right now, but there’s a connection between me and the UFC now, something concrete that I didn’t have before. My return will be in the end of the year and will be in the UFC", Arona revealed, exclusively to TATAME.com. "I’ll be worried about my performance, my knee and my body. I wanna do my best in every fight. I’m used to big competition like the UFC, I wanna be ready".

Dana White said he didn't want Arona back in April '09, but that was before Arona made a successful return to MMA by defeating MMA veteran Marvin Eastman in Sept. '09.  However, Arona has reportedly suffered some injuries since that bout.  Arona was once one of MMA's best light heavyweights holding notable wins over Wanderlei Silva, Alistair Overeem, Murila Rua, Dan Henderson, and even lost a very close decision to Fedor Emelianenko way back in 2000.  It's interesting now that the UFC has changed their tune if this report is true, and Arona has repeatedly said that his style was made for cage fighting.  Of course he fought in a ring while in PRIDE, so maybe we'll get to find out soon enough.  I would think Strikeforce would definitely be interested in someone like Arona to help beef up that very thin light heavyweight division.  Which may be the reason the UFC is showing interest now? 

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Arona is one of the all-time liars.

Like, ever. Dude claimed he’s been going to the UFC 3 or 4 times. Claimed he lost to Sokoudjou due to the dengue fever. Don’t believe anything this guy says ever, pretty much.

by sprewellrimz on Jan 15, 2010 6:02 PM EST reply actions   0 recs

Agreed.

I’ll believe him when he’s on the fight card lineup on UFC.com.

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by -Neil- on Jan 15, 2010 11:25 PM EST up reply actions   0 recs

Good point. This move is a good one. It adds a name that will interest hardcore fans, at what will probably end up being a favorable price. Is he still at light heavy? Last time I saw him he looked pretty swole.

by SlickRick00 on Jan 15, 2010 9:19 PM EST reply actions   0 recs

yea...still LHW

he’s always been huge..

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by Kelvin Hunt on Jan 15, 2010 9:37 PM EST reply actions   0 recs

i think the only reason fighters such as tito,baroni,trigg and hallman are in the ufc so SF can’t have them, so no huge surprise with arona. even though eastman is the go to can nowadays, arona looke decent at bitetti combat for being off so long. hopefully he doesn’t have paulo fihlo syndrome where he only looks good when not being tested for peds. i also think this recent deal with arabs will bring in an influx of new money to bring in more of the “name” fighters that may be a little long in the tooth, such as gomi and arona. there some risks with these guys, but i think the ufc is able to take such risks. i for one,would like to see what arona has left and the ufc is the best place to prove it.

by bdw on Jan 16, 2010 4:13 AM EST reply actions   0 recs

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