Greater Light Heavyweight: Ricardo Arona or Randy Couture?

[ExitLUPin]

Who was the better LHW to u? This is STRICTLY what both fighters have done in the LHW (205-lbs) division, so any accomplishments or wins in other divisions are irrelevant and not factored here.

Ricardo Arona

Top 5 wins - Wanderlei Silva (considered the #1 LHW in the world), Dan Henderson

Top 10 wins - Alistair Overeem

Top 20 wins - Guy Mezger, Gustavo Machado

Other wins: Murilo Ninja, Jeremy Hornx2, Dean Lister, Kazushi Sakuraba

Accomplishments: RINGS MW Champion, PRIDE MW GP Finalist and title contender

Randy Couture

Top 5 wins - Chuck Liddell, Tito Ortiz

Top 10 wins - Vitor Belfort

Top 20 wins - Brandon Vera

Other wins: Mike van Arsdale

Accomplishments: UFC LHW Champion

 

[PureLite]

Arona is the better blanket

And with the ufc rules, he would have been a blanket full of thorns (elbows).

 

[ExitLUPin]

Arona is the better blanket

And with the ufc rules, he would have been a blanket full of thornes (elbows).

Ricardo with unified rules, a cage, elbows etc. would be even tougher to beat lol

 

[MuyThaiElbows]

Couture

 

[PureLite]

Ricardo with unified rules, a cage, elbows etc. would be even tougher to beat lol

True lol

Wasn't Guy Mezger a top 10 win for Arona ? He was sorta like a top 10 version of Gustafsson in his era. Tough fight for anyone, lost the big ones in very close decisions (some of them you could argue he won as well).

 

[Big McLargeHuge]

Couture

 

[ExitLUPin]

True lol

Wasn't Guy Mezger a top 10 win for Arona ? He was sorta like a top 10 version of Gustafsson in his era. Tough fight for anyone, lost the big ones in very close decisions (some of them you could argue he won as well).

He mightve been, i think top 15 at best tho. After Chuck beat him his ranking went down a bit.

I think Reem was more like the Gustafsson of that era IMO, just a more kickboxing/MT style. Underrated wrestlers both of them, Gus the boxing stylist and not the submission grappler Reem was.

 

[Bmartin89]

Shame we never got to see Arona in the UFC, guy was a beast could of been champion.

 

[AceCooch]

I would say Couture, but you can justify either one

 

[BJ@LW&WW]

definitely couture. back in their lhw heydays, the meaning of the ufc lhw belt and the pride mw belt could be compared, but technically arona was never pride mw champ, despite beating the champ wanderlei in a tournament. if you want to give him an unofficial belt for beating wanderlei, that's reasonable, but then he only had that belt for a few hours

couture was ufc LHW champ for a few fights and the whole tito/chuck rivalries i think put him above arona.

 

[PureLite]

definitely couture. back in their lhw heydays, the meaning of the ufc lhw belt and the pride mw belt could be compared, but technically arona was never pride mw champ, despite beating the champ wanderlei in a tournament. if you want to give him an unofficial belt for beating wanderlei, that's reasonable, but then he only had that belt for a few hours

couture was ufc LHW champ for a few fights and the whole tito/chuck rivalries i think put him above arona.

He beat Wanderlei twice imo

A non tourny worn out Arona vs Shogun would have been epic.

 

[Wand4Life]

IMO Arona's wins are better, in a much more difficult environment than the UFC cage for a grappler to succeed in, against a more difficult roster at the time, including shit like GP's.

And if we want to go and add in the hypothetical match-up, I think he legitimately dominates every second.
Still arguably my favourite grappler in MMA ever. His ADCC matches are masterpieces.

Motherfucking backflip to side-control counter. No big deal.

 

[ExitLUPin]

IMO Arona's wins are better, in a much more difficult environment than the UFC cage for a grappler to succeed in, against a more difficult roster at the time, including shit like GP's.

And if we want to go and add in the hypothetical match-up, I think he legitimately dominates every second.
Still arguably my favourite grappler in MMA ever. His ADCC matches are masterpieces.

Motherfucking backflip to side-control counter. No big deal.

I would favor Ricardo too. He was a much better overall grappler, his top game was one of the greatest, and he was one of the best allaround grapplers in MMA. Outside a peak Shogun, no one from Lister, to Horn, to Fedor, to Hendo, to Saku could do much of anything grappling with him. Never even had a point scored against him in ADCC against guys like Saulo, Alemida, Babalu, Monson, Tito etc.

His leg kicks were among the best in divisions history too. Handys clinch game would be a problem for him tho. But on the mat i think Ricardo has his way with him. It would be interesting to see the standup tho.

 

[BJ@LW&WW]

He beat Wanderlei twice imo

A non tourny worn out Arona vs Shogun would have been epic.

i certainly remember it being close.

i'd be wary predict any arona fight as being 'epic'

 

[ElCasca]

IMO Arona's wins are better, in a much more difficult environment than the UFC cage for a grappler to succeed in, against a more difficult roster at the time, including shit like GP's.

And if we want to go and add in the hypothetical match-up, I think he legitimately dominates every second.
Still arguably my favourite grappler in MMA ever. His ADCC matches are masterpieces.

Motherfucking backflip to side-control counter. No big deal.

Didn't he won the ADCC without conceding a single point?

 

[ExitLUPin]

i certainly remember it being close.

i'd be wary predict any arona fight as being 'epic'

His fight with Hendo was epic IMO, yeah most of Ricardos fights werent exciting and his blanketing had most MMA fans hating him
But Hendo being one of the best escape artists in MMA back then certainly helped with that being a great fight

 

[Erick Silva]

It's a shame that Arona retire so young...

He would be a beast with UFC rules, octagon and shit...

 

[moreorless87]

Just at LHW its Arona for me with wins over Wanderlei, Overeem, Hendo, Mezger and Ninja where as Randys only big wins at LHW are Chuck, Tito and Vitor, overall though including LHW and HW Randy has the greater legacy.

 

[Alex]

Arona, the most underated fighter of all time.

 

[Wand4Life]

Didn't he won the ADCC without conceding a single point?

His entire career in ADCC.