A successful competitor on the Brazilian circuit and with some international appearances to his name, Ariel Machado was nevertheless rather an unknown on the world stage when he got his GLORY call-up. But he impressed with his performance at GLORY 32, particularly with the clever tactics he used against the fearsome Zhuravlev and his discipline in sticking to them throughout the fight.
He debuted at GLORY 32 VIRGINIA as a light-heavyweight and came runner-up in that card's Light-Heavyweight Contender Tournament. In the semi-finals he beat the much-vaunted Pavel Zhuravlev of Ukraine but took some damage along the way.