3. Ricardo Arona
Pride Fighting Championships great Arona secures a surprisingly high bronze medal finish here. Certainly, he is one of the most underrated and forgotten fighters in MMA history, despite some fantastic results against Pride's greatest legends. Arona's striking was lacking, largely relegated to some decent kicks, but he may have been the overall best grappler in MMA in his prime, with outstanding wrestling to go along with elite, world-class BJJ. Prior to joining Pride, Arona was already facing world-class opposition in the Rings promotion, winning two close decisions against Jeremy Horn and dropping one to Fedor Emelianenko. Emelianenko was very far from the fighter he would later be, but it should be noted that the fight likely would have been scored for Arona under UFC criteria, as he spent most of the contest in top position. After going 5-1, Arona jumped to Pride, the world's best MMA promotion of the time. Arona's final record of 8-4 in the promotion doesn't seem so great, but consider the opposition. Against fellow top 10 inclusions, he took Olympic wrestler Dan Henderson down at will en route to easily beating him, and demolished Kazushi Sakuraba to force a doctor's stoppage, though it should be noted the Japanese fighter was much smaller. Arona was defeated by a legendary slam knockout by Quinton Jackson in a fight he had been winning, though he also has a fine victory over another excellent opponent in Murilo Rua. His greatest triumph, however, was defeating Wanderlei Silva at Pride Final Conflict 2005, the first time Silva had been beaten at the 205-pound weight class in over five years and 18 fights. Arona seemed poised to be an even greater legend, but he was brutally dissected by Mauricio Rua later that night in the Grand Prix finals. After that, he lost a close rematch against Silva, finished Alistair Overeem with ground-and-pound inside of five minutes, and was then knocked out in two minutes by Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou, the same bad loss that his fellow Brazilian Top Team stablemate Antonio Rogerio Nogueira had fallen prey to a few weeks earlier. Many were excited for Arona to continue a brilliant career after PRIDE was bought out by the UFC, especially since he was only 28 at the time of his last fight. However, aside from an easy unanimous decision win over UFC veteran Marvin Eastman in 2009, that was it for Arona, who never fought again. For his enormous victories and mostly losing to only the very best, Arona is worth remembering.
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