Quinton Jackson vs Ricardo Arona
This is an amazing fight with an ending a lot of guys have dreamed of finishing a fight in this way. Quinton Jackson actually does it
Hold your breath when you watch this one, it’s an all-round great fight between two great fighters. (Jackson being more great). It’s also extremely violent Both fighters were already well-established and successful in Pride coming into this fight. The fight took place at Pride Critical Countdown 2004.
Quinton Jackson is from Memphis, Tennessee and has a wrestling background. He achieved success in smaller MMA promotions in America before being invited to fight in Pride. In his first Pride fight he was considered a scrub against Sakuraba but proved he was good by repeatedly slamming Sakuraba before losing to a rear naked choke. Jackson went on to slam many other fighters in his subsequent Pride fights, and that became his trademark. I’ve never seen anybody slam people as much as he does. Not many fighters out there can slam people so routinely. His only other loss was his first fight against Wanderlei Silva. {Talk about how he always gives good interviews and commentery. He’s a staple of Pride. His fight strategy called “whip your ass”.} He broke his hand his last Pride fight ( and still won) and he says he’s fully recovered.
Ricardo Arona is from Rio De Janeiro Brazil and was 3-0 in Pride coming into this fight. He is a solid all round fighter, but mostly a grappler. He won the Abu Dhabi submission tournament and was undefeated before being invited to fight in Rings, where he did well, and then was finally invited to Pride. In Pride, he had already shown that he was a good fighter, but exhibited an inability to finish a fight and would rather just ride the guy out until the end of the fight. This made him unpopular with Pride fans, and he is considered somewhat of a villain because he already beat good fighters with a conservative and boring fighting style. His split decision win against Dan Henderson is a good example. Nonetheless, he was a worthy opponent for Quinton Jackson. Arona does seem well spoken in his interviews and English is his 2nd language.
Both fighters were considered in the top 5 best fighters in the world for their weight.
The Opening:
Rampage comes out to his own original fight music that makes for a pretty cool entrance. It’s rap with them shouting out “Rampage”. Lenne Hart does a good introduction complete with howling. I would say that his music is 2nd in intimidating an opponent only to Fedor’s music.
The opening staredown is respectful between both fighters. They tap gloves right away. Arona doesn’t make eye contact for the most part, but looks determined. Jackson stares right at him at first but also looks at the ref and down for the last half of the staredown. They both listen and nod to the ref. There is no bad blood, just two fighters going to work. They tap gloves again and go to their corners. The winner fights Wanderlei Silva for the Championship Belt.
The Fight:
The fight starts and they feel each other out. Arona lands a bunch of big low kicks initially. Those hurt. If you land low kicks like that to an untrained fighter they will go down.
Jackson goes in for a punch and the fighters get into the clinch. Arona lands a knee to the body and then gets in the standing guard. The koala position as Quadros has called it.
Now the instinctual thing for Jackson to do here would be to simply slam Arona back down to the mat. Arona has his guard closed by locking his arms over Jackson’s arms, if he gets slammed then Jackson will be firmly in Arona’s guard. It takes a lot of strength for Jackson to hold Arona up. He carries Arona into the corner and almost gently lets Arona down and ends up in his guard. The ref moves the fighters to the center of the ring and restarts them with Jackson in the guard (I love this rule).
Arona is keeping a tight guard from the bottom. He does a good job trying to set up an triangle arm bar, but Jackson escapes and gets to his feet. Arona stays down and shows good technique throwing bicycle kicks from his back. We’ll see more of that technique later. The ref stands Arona up.
Arona lounges forward throwing a flurry, but only another low kick connects. Arona is looking good. Jackson is waving Arona on, like “come on”. It didn’t seem like a mean spirited taunt.
Arona goes for a takedown and Jackson blocks it. Jackson has excellent takedown defense
Arona is working on setting up an armbar from the bottom and eats some punches by Jackson to the body and face. But there isn’t too much Jackson can do here.
Arona goes for a triangle armbar and gets real close to securing it. But Jackson gets his arm free and is now on his knees and erect over Arona. This is a dangerous position for the fighter on top because under Pride rules fighters are allowed to upkick and heel kick from the bottom. This is not allowed in American MMA and the fighter would be relatively safe here. It is not allowed in American MMA because the rules are apparently designed to protect wrestlers.
In relation to this, Arona throws and lands some huge heel kicks
Arona next does a kind of stupid thing. And it’s somewhat controversial, although it shouldn’t be controversial. Jackson was obviously stunned at this moment. Instead of going for the kill and finishing the fight like a shark in the water, Arona stops fighting and begins verbally talking to the ref saying to the effect “He’s knocked out. Stop the fight.” At least 6 seconds go by with Arona talking to the ref. The ref does nothing, and rightfully so. Jackson uses this valuable time to recover and you can see him talking to his corner. Jackson then moves back into Arona’s guard and the fight continues.
There is no reason why Arona should have stopped fighting there to plead with the referee to end the fight. He may have done this to try to secure an easy/cheap victory, or respected Jackson too much to continue damage. But it almost shows a type of fear on Arona’s part to want to end the fight in this way where he’s pleading with the ref to stop the fight. It may be borderline dishonorable, or Arona was just being compassionate. This contributes to Arona’s reputation that he doesn’t try to end fights and doesn’t have that finisher/killer instinct. The lesson to be learned here is to keep fighting until the ref stops the fight or the guy is completely knocked out. Just like in football where they tell you to keep playing until you hear a whistle.
That being said, those were some of the biggest heel kicks from the bottom I have ever seen land. We may never see something like that again in MMA because of the American rules. Arona showed great technique throwing them, getting a full wind up, especially on the first two.
Now I have heard some people say that this was a “flash knockout” of Jackson, where he was knocked out for maybe a split second. Watching the replay, it doesn’t look like it was even that. Jackson was just stunned. That would have been a very controversial way to end the fight if the ref decided it was a flash knockout. Perhaps if this fight was under American MMA rules they might have stopped it. To be a flash knockout, the guy has to be out for at least a second then come back. The announcers were saying it might have been, but they couldn’t see. They saw it once and in real time.
Back to the fight with Jackson in Arona’s guard. Next, Jackson says something to Arona and they start talking and then are like “good job” to each other. I couldn’t determine what exactly they said, but it was in a friendly way. They respect each other and this is a sport.
Arona is keeping a tight guard. He tries a submission and then inadvertently elbows Jackson in the face but he’s okay. They ref says something, good eye.
Arona tries another arm submission, which looks good enough for the ref to start the classic “give up?” thing. This is a Pride Fighting quirk
Both fighters are not doing much in the guard now, and it is close to being stood up by the ref. Arona is keeping a close hold on Jackson’s right arm, which is going to come back to haunt him. Arona goes for another good triangle armbar attempt. Jackson lands a few body shots. Arona is able to partially setup a triangle choke. This is the closest he has gotten to securing it.
Next, pay attention to how Jackson is increasing his leverage by getting on his toes and leaning on Arona. This is very strategic. He is working his body into position to pick Arona up. I don’t even know if he was consciously doing this. He is showing perfect form for heavy lifting. I am amazed by this, attempting to pick up a fighter and slam him while in the guard. We all dream of doing this, but it is extremely difficult to pull off. It’s a combination of strength and good lifting technique so you don’t injure yourself. That stuff only happens in the movies and WWE where it actually works, right? Jackson has shown that he can routinely slam people in the past though. Arona is hanging on tight to Jackson’s arm.
What happens next will forever be remembered in MMA history. The greatest slam ever the history of MMA at the highest level.
Quinton Jackson picks Arona up all the way over his head, and power bombs him back into the mat.
Arona lands head first and his head bounces off the mat like a basketball
The fight is over. Arona is knocked out. He eats two more punches before the ref jumps in.
It is a thing of beauty watching Jackson pull off this slam. His technique is perfect, you cannot do it any better. I think he just naturally developed this technique, never being formally trained on how to slam people like that.
Arona is so messed up on the ground that I’m worried he might have to be sent to the hospital.
Jackson is bleeding profusely from his eye brow. When I first saw it, I thought it was from Arona’s heel kicks earlier. However, an unfortunate casualty of the slam was that Jackson’s eye brow had accidently slammed into the side of Arona’s face when Arona hit the ground. Jackson put everything he had into that slam. You can see he even left his feet while throwing Arona down to put the full weight of his body into it. Unfortunately Jackson couldn’t pull his head back in time as Arona’s head bounced off the mat and it hit his eye brow, causing severe damage.
Jackson needed around 40 stitches on his eye brow after the fight. That sucks to see. If that didn’t happen it really would have been a fairy tale ending. Well it still is. Jackson will forever be remembered for this slam to people who know MMA. I respect him greatly.
You can’t end a fight in a more dramatic and dominating fashion then as the way Quinton Jackson ended this fight. What a slam
After several minutes, Arona was able to get up and walk away under his own power. I’m glad to see that. It’s cool to see Jackson walking back to the locker room high-fiving fans with that awesome Pride music they play after every fight. You can really see that gnarly gash on his eyebrow.
Arona was able to recover and he went to achieve more success in Pride, defeating Wanderlei Silva using his typical cautious and slow fighting style and becoming runner up in the middle weight Pride Grand Prix. Because of his very conservative and somewhat boring fighting style, Arona was not picked up by any other major MMA organizations after Pride’s collapsed. He has repeatedly tried to join UFC and other larger MMA organizations since 2007 but they have refused him based on his fighting reputation.
However, Arona was able to make a lot of money from fighting in Pride though, and he deserved it. He lives in Brazil and the money he made is going a long way in that country. I heard he is living the good life down there, surfing, partying, and picking up women. I don’t blame him. He can do what he wants because he achieved success by participating in near mortal combat that is Pride Fighting. I’m happy for him that he’s done well professionally and financially and I respect him, even though he wasn’t the most exciting fighter all time.
Quinton Jackson went on to achieve great fame, success, and fortune in MMA after this fight. He successfully transitioned to the UFC and is well known among MMA fans all over the world. He also gives great interviews and seems like a fun guy. He was a fan favorite in Pride.
In the immediate aftermath of this fight, Jackson went through among the toughest string of fights I have heard anybody have to go through. He fought Wanderlei Silva next for the second time in the most violent, fast paced, back and forth fight I have ever seen. Then he faced the other two guys Chute Box, Ninja and Shogun Rua. It was a meat grinder fight schedule for any man and Jackson did alright. This experience would help him dominate in fights after this though.
Quinton Jackson is among my favorite all time fighters, and I am very happy for him that he has achieved professional and financial success. He deserved it. I’ve never seen someone routinely slam people and this one he did here against Arona is one for the ages.
This was a great, historic fight
Quinton Jackson and Ricardo Arona, thank you for fighting in Pride.
