Greater Light Heavyweight: Ricardo Arona or Randy Couture?

?

  • Total voters
    135
TheGZA said:
Even Brock couldn't muscle Randy in the clinch.
Click to expand...

Cmon man, Brock is an actor. A highly athletic actor that was gifted a title fight after one victory over a MMA fighter turned poker player.

Arona is an MMA and grappling veteran and a legend.
 
Randy the better mmartist but Arona one of the more underrated jjitz practitioners of all time.
 
CM 4 said:
Arona has the better wins but Couture was the champ. It's Couture.
Click to expand...

Arona had better wins because he fought in Pride who had better fighters. Same as Couture being champ because he fought in the UFC where there was only two legit comepetitors in his division, including one (Liddell) who lost in the GP of that same Pride division.

A case can be made that Couture might not ever have been champ if he fought the same caliber of competition Arona fought in at the same time.
 
fourtyounce48 said:
Arona had better wins because he fought in Pride who had better fighters. Same as Couture being champ because he fought in the UFC where there was only two legit comepetitors in his division, including one (Liddell) who lost in the GP of that same Pride division.

A case can be made that Couture might not ever have been champ if he fought the same caliber of competition Arona fought in at the same time.
Click to expand...

Yeah no way Handy would've been champ in PRIDE, not only because there were better LHWs but no cage which he relied on as much as anyone for his great clinch game and was K own for wall n stalling.

I don't like that logic in general though. According to that criteria, Serra > Fitch, Rory, Shields/Diaz (if u dont consider SF champs)
 
The one is a lay and pray master, the other is a wall and stall guru.
I'd call it a draw.
 
Fullmount Triangle said:
Arona. Better wins. Couture had Tito and Liddell, which are all well and good, but Arona's win over Wanderlei is better than both of them, not to mention his wins over Hendo, Mezger, Ninja and Overeem
Click to expand...

A grappler beating Wand isn't as impressive as one beating Chuck, IMO. They both lost rematches though. I do think Arona was fighting under the wrong rules though. It is a shame he had health issues, as it would have been fun to have him in the LHW mix in the UFC in the late 2000's, even up to him maybe giving Jones some trouble in 2011.
 
I kind of think it's Arona and not close. He fought the tougher competition and has better wins. This could be the pride fanatic in me speaking though. Also, to this day it still takes me a minute when I see Wandy or Arona referred to as Light Heavyweights in Pride.
 
Couture of course.

Arona was a one dimensional selfcentered, arrogant, with no game plan.
 
Arona? Ok, I'm a Pride fan and always will be, by far the best MMA promotion we've ever seen, but we need to stop overrating Pride talent. Arona may very well be the greater fighter compared to Couture, BUT, the guy retired young. He wasn't active long enough to do great things. Yes he's got some good wins (beating Lil' Overeem is cool and all but several others did) but he doesn't have a tremendous record. It was good back in the days, but Couture was active for much longer and became the champ at both LHW and HW. It is mind boggling if anyone actually thinks he has a greater legacy than Couture because he hasn't. It's a shame he didn't join the UFC and that is why Couture by far is the greater fighter.
 
Aronas resume looks a lot worse when you consider he got clowned on the same night as his biggest win then went on to lose the rematch a few months later.

Randy won the big prize in his company at 205 Arona lost in the big GP and lost in his title fight for those reasons I'm giving the nod to Randy.
 
Arona had the better LHW career
Randy had the better overall career
 
Cake4Breakfast said:
A grappler beating Wand isn't as impressive as one beating Chuck, IMO. They both lost rematches though. I do think Arona was fighting under the wrong rules though. It is a shame he had health issues, as it would have been fun to have him in the LHW mix in the UFC in the late 2000's, even up to him maybe giving Jones some trouble in 2011.
Click to expand...

well considering Wanderlei was the longtime champion and only had a loss in PRIDE to Mark Hunt, i'd say that beating Wanderlei is a little higher on the totem pole than beating chuck. It was established that that chuck was, at best, the number 4 light heavyweight in the world, and that is best case scenario for him.

It would have been nice to see Arona in the UFC, he's always going to be one of the big question marks in history. He stopped so early, 27-28. But guys like him and Igor retiring young (Igor retired at 33) due to injuries is just the way of the road bud.
 
Voted for Randy just for being more exciting.

But Arona was an absolute beast. He outwrestled Hendo and Fedor and arguably Rampage.
 
People mentioning that Arona losing the Wanderlei rematch somehow nullifies his win over Silva are neglecting the mention that a loooooooot of people thought at the time and still think Arona got screwed on that decision. I am one of them.

Arona is one of my favorite fighters ever, with one of the most complete grappling games in MMA history fighting at the highest level in a league whose rules did not favor grapplers on the whole. If you compare just the light heavyweight resumes of the two it's Arona in a walk, IMO.

Glad to see Arona getting so much love in the thread if not in the poll itself. One of my biggest disappointments as an MMA fan is not getting to see him (or Filho... or Fedor) in the UFC after PRIDE.
 
Arona, he didn't win the major belt but the division he fought in was better and he wasn't given a bunch of title shots repeatedly.
 
Arona is a dirty mofo
What he did to Sakuraba puts him with the trash and garbages
Trying to enlarge a cut with fingers, what kind of sick individual does this ?
This and his juicy reputation, no wonder why there was nobody to sign him post-Pride
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
1,255,781
Messages
56,738,166
Members
175,382
Latest member
LaPalmaJoa

Share this page

Back
Top