December 22nd, 2000 – Osaka, Japan. Two young talents in the infancy of their careers were set to go toe-to-toe in RINGS King of Kings tournament. RINGS was a Japanese mixed martial arts promotion, which helped start the careers of many MMA notables who would go on to fight in Pride and the UFC.
One - the reigning ADCC champion from Niteroi, Brazil – Ricardo Arona. The other – a European champion in sambo from Stary Oskol, Russia – Fedor Emelianenko. Very few in the crowd could have known that the results of this fight would be debated for years to come.
As the fight opened, Arona shot a double-leg on the sambo player, eventually finishing after some resistance by Emelianenko. A back and forth chess match would ensue – with Arona winning most of the grappling exchanges, but Fedor also having some moments in the fight.
After 2 rounds – the judges came to a decision of a draw. But as it was a tournament, there could be no draws so the fighters faced off for a final round. This time Fedor did a lot better defending the takedown attempts by Arona, stuffing multiple attempts in a row. Eventually Arona would succeed, ending in Fedor's half-guard. After some inaction, the referee forced the fighters back to their feet. The rest of the round was highly competitive, with the final bell being rung just as Arona finished a double-leg on Fedor.
As each judge gave the decision to Fedor, Arona looked noticeably perplexed at the result. And it was hard to argue with him. He had just gone 3 rounds, controlling the majority of the fight. But RINGS scoring was not favourable to Arona's style. Whatever the case, Fedor's profile was raised and Arona went back to the drawing board.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSQOPOzJFM0&
Arona would fight 3 more times in RINGS, winning all three – including a decision win over highly touted Jeremy Horn.
In September of 2001, he would sign with the biggest mixed martial art's promoter in the world at the time – Pride FC. There were no gimme fights for Arona. In his debut match at Pride 16, he would face off against Guy Mezger. Mezger was a crafty veteran, having competed since 1994. He was already a regular face on the Pride circuit by 2001.
Mezger controlled the first two rounds and was clearly winning the fight. But as the third bell rung, he looked noticeably fatigued. Early in the round, Arona put Mezger on his back and the fight stayed there for the rest of the round with Arona controlling the Lion's Den fighter.
Newer fans to the sport would have assumed a clear decision would go to Mezger, but Pride's scoring was different to the 10 point-must system we see in today's UFC. In Pride, heavy emphasis was placed on who finished the fight the strongest, rather than who accumulated the most points over all rounds. Because of this, Arona edged the decision.
In his next two fights, Ricardo Arona would secure two decision victories over Dan Henderson and Murilo "Ninja" Rua. Arona would outwrestle and outgrapple the Olympic wrestler Henderson at Pride 20 before squaring off against Rua at Pride 23.
His fight with Ninja Rua was particularly heated, due to the bad blood between the Brazilian Top Team and Chute Boxe – who were at the time Brazil's two most successful MMA academies. While Ninja put on a very spirited effort, Arona's grappling was just too much – affording him the decision.
Arona's next fight was probably one of his most memorable for all the wrong reasons. At Pride FC – Critical Countdown in June of 2004, Ricardo Arona would face off against rising MMA star – Quinton "Rampage" Jackson. Arona hadn't fought since November of 2002 and was making his comeback with a lot of momentum behind him.
For the first time in his career, Arona ran into a roadblock in Rampage. Rampage was too strong, and Arona was unable to outwrestle him. While Arona was a world-class BJJ player, his strength relied in the ability to put someone on their back and control them from top position.
This forced Arona to pull guard, and try secure a win by submission from the bottom. At one point Arona landed some vicious upkicks and hammer fists from the bottom on Jackson, which clearly stunned him. Arona tried to argue with the ref that Rampage was out, and for a moment it looked like he very well could have been. But Rampage recovered.
A few minutes later, Arona slowly worked towards setting up a triangle choke. As Arona tried to adjust to get a better angle, he forgot to underhook Rampage's leg. Rampage scooped Arona up into the air and knocked him out cold with a powerbomb that would have made even Kevin Nash proud.
Arona later argued that Rampage inadvertently headbutted him when they hit the canvass, but whatever the case - Arona was knocked out and Rampage had handed him his first loss in Pride.
