The ADCC continues to populate its Hall of Fame, announcing a new entrant each Monday. This week, the organization announced that Ricardo Arona will join Roger Gracie, Andre Galvao, and Marcelo Garcia in the ADCC Hall of Fame.
A black belt under Ricardo Laborio, Ricardo Arona was a dominant competitor in the late 1990s and early 2000s. He won the 99kg division at the 2000 and 2001 ADCC Championships, as well as the absolute division at the 2001 ADCC’s, defeating the likes of future ADCC champion Jon-Olav Einemo, Ricardo Almeida, Saulo Ribeiro, and Jean Jacques Machado. In 2003, Arona competed in his final submission grappling match, defeating former ADCC absolute champion Mark Kerr in a superfight.
Arona is perhaps better known for his accomplishments in MMA, thanks to his 12-fight run in Pride FC from 2001 to 2007. During that stretch, Arona defeated legendary MMA fighters such as Dan Henderson, Kazushi Sakuraba, Wanderlei Silva, and Alistair Overeem. Given his extensive background in grappling, it may come as a surprise that only two of Arona’s 14 career MMA victories came by way of submission.
