The 10 best fighters to never fight in the UFC

#5 Ricardo Arona

Ricardo Arona had wins over the likes of Wanderlei Silva in PRIDE

One of PRIDE’s best 205lbers in their heyday of the early 2000’s, Ricardo Arona practically dropped off the face of the earth once Zuffa bought the Japanese promotion out in 2007. Most reports suggested that he simply didn’t need to do MMA any more as he was being employed in the Middle East by mega-rich sheikhs to teach surfing and jiu-jitsu, and if that was the case, then you’d have to applaud him. Despite this, it’s still a pity that he never made his way into the UFC.

Simply put, in his PRIDE days, Arona was a great fighter. Cutting an intimidating figure with his huge, ripped physique, ‘The Brazilian Tiger’ was one of the best grapplers in the sport, with a powerful takedown and a crushing top game capable of dealing with great fighters, including Dan Henderson and Wanderlei Silva, both of whom suffered losses to him. Arona was never the greatest striker, but usually he didn’t need to be – most of his opponents simply couldn’t stop his grappling.

How well his game would’ve translated into the UFC – the realm of more great wrestlers than PRIDE; the likes of Tito Ortiz, Randy Couture and eventually, Jon Jones and Ryan Bader – is admittedly a bit of a question mark, but it certainly would’ve been nice to see him face off with those kind of fighters.

In reality, Arona still managed to face a who’s who of great 205lbers of his era – Wanderlei, Henderson, Rampage, Shogun, Overeem, and so on – and the fact that he had so much success against those great fighters means he’s definitely one of the best to not fight in the Octagon.