Ricardo Arona Is Back

Ricardo Arona will make his long overdue return to MMA on September 12 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil when he takes on Marvin Eastman. The event is being promoted by a company called Bitetti Combat. I've never heard of them, but GracieMag talks about the event like it's gonna be pretty big. They even invited Big John McCarthy and Renzo Gracie to be referees. I think at this point McCarthy would ref a dogfight, if you invited him. It's too bad his talents are being wasted. Arona is one of the most polarizing figures in MMA. To some he is a legend, to others a boring wrestler who looks for decisions. I fall somewhere in the middle. I don't think Arona ever got the chance to fully realize his potential. He began fighting in Pride at the age of 23. It was in 2001 when most fighters favored a wrestling approach (lay and pray at its finest hour). Arona had lots of success with wins over Dan Henderson, Murilo Rua, and Wanderlei Silva. He had little reason to evolve as a fighter until he lost three out of four fights between 2005-2007. We never got to see how Arona would have altered his style because he's been out of action since his loss to Sokoudjou in April of 2007. I'm not saying I think he would have dramatically changed. I'm just saying his career path kind of led him to being one-dimensional. The card also features Glover Teixeira, who apparently is still not allowed in the United States for some reason.