Ricardo Arona Wants to Fight at UFC Rio in August

Tatame with the quote:

"I don't have a contract signed with nobody, but I want to be ok to sign a contract, preferably an international one, but Brazil has been evolving a lot, so maybe I'll fight in Brazil again. My goal is to dispute an international championship, except if it's on UFC Rio, because it's an international championship, but it'll be in Brazil. If I have the chance to fight on UFC in August, it'll be the ideal. I've been training thinking about it, I want to be 100% to return on this UFC in Brazil, I think it'd be perfect to return on UFC Rio and I've been training hard for it", commented Arona...

...What Dana White told me was: "It'd be perfect if you fought once before coming. We have a vacancy for you here on UFC, but you should fight first to earn rhythm". I told him it was ok, and that I'd like to return to UFC, and now that UFC is here in Brazil, it'll be great to gather the two things: fighting in Brazil on UFC Rio. If I have the chance to do it, it'd be great to fight on UFC in August.

Once a consensus Top-10 light-heavyweight, Ricardo Arona has seen action only once since the fall of PRIDE FC nearly four years ago, that match a win against Marvin Eastman in 2009. Plagued by a knee injury, the Brazilian, who holds notable wins over Dan Henderson, Wanderlei Silva, Kazushi Sakuraba, and Alistair Overeem, has often been linked to North American promotions such as Strikeforce and the UFC over the past couple of years, though no agreement for his services has ever been reached. One of the world's premier grapplers for a decade, the 32-year-old Arona would be an interesting pick-up for whichever organization is willing to overlook his injury problems. With UFC Rio approaching, is it actually possible Arona could make his debut in the Octagon in 2011?