"When Pride was over I didn’t negotiate with the UFC," said Arona. "I wanted to take some time off... I competed professionally since I was 15, and when I was 30 I needed to stop. Pride was over and I decided to stop and look to the MMA market, to see where I’d fit. I fought again two years later, at Bitetti Combat, but I torn the ACL in the first round. I fought two more rounds, so it took me almost two years to heal."
"When I decided to fight again, I started to train with my friend Paulo Filho, but I injured my other knee. I’ve tore the ligaments of my other knee and I will have to go on surgery again. I will do the surgery by the end of the year, so I will need to take some time off to be at 100 percent again. That’s the reason I’m not fighting yet. I have to heal everything to return."
"UFC is the goal of every fighter, and that’s my goal. I don’t know if I’ll need one or two more fights to get there, but I’m not worried. UFC is the goal, and I will be ready to get there. The only chance I won’t fight again is if my body can’t do it anymore. But I had a knee surgery before and healed well, so I believe my other knee will be 100 percent. I know time flies, but I also believe in my experience. Everything will be alright.
"I believe my recovery will take a year and I should be able at least to decide what’s next at the end of 2014. Will I return fighting jiu-jitsu, submission or straight to MMA? I expect to be ready to fight in one year after the surgery, but if it takes more than a year I’m okay with that too. No rush. I need to get ready to return at 100 percent and that’s what matters."
"Every athlete lives with the money they get from sponsors and purses, and I haven’t competed recently, but I have Quiksilver and Moskova as sponsors and they support me a lot."
"I’m building a structure where I can train and get ready to compete. I want to have at my house everything a fighter needs to be able to compete at the highest level without leaving Itacoatiara. I have everything I need here. I live in peace, thinking about my projects. I can stay healthy using the nature, like the mountains and the sea. It would be tougher to do it in the city, and that’s why I love to live here."
"I have a lot of good guys to help me here, but I also want my friends to help me, like Anderson Silva, Rodrigo 'Minotauro', Amaury Bitetti, Rogerio 'Minotouro', Paulo Filho and many others. I will also go to Rio de Janeiro to train with them, but I don’t want to need to go there to train like I needed in the past."
"My weight is the same for 10 years. I weigh 205 pounds and have always weighed that."
"I’m capable of beating any fighter. I’ve proven it already. I only need to be 100 percent to do it. Today, I can’t beat any of them. That’s the reality. But I believe a lot in myself. I’ve fought fighters from every weight class. Doing the right thing, I have a chance against any of them. Most of the fighters today (in the UFC) lose because they make mistakes, not because the other one if better than them."
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