Andrei Arlovski demoted to the undercard at UFC 82
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- February
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According to MMAweekly.com, this is the final card for UFC 82.
Main Card:
-Anderson Silva vs. Dan Henderson
-Cheick Kongo vs. Heath Herring
-Yushin Okami vs. Evan Tanner
-Jon Fitch vs. Chris Wilson
-Diego Sanchez vs. David Bielkheden
Preliminary Card:
-Andrei Arlovski vs. Jake O’Brien
-Luke Cummo vs. Luigi Fioravanti
-Josh Koscheck vs. Dustin Hazelett
-Jorge Gurgel vs. John Halverson
Former UFC heavyweight champion Andrei Arlovski will be making his return to the octagon for the first time in almost a year. Arlovski last fought at UFC 70 – Nations Collide on 4/21/2007. Arlovski won a lackluster unanimous decision over Fabricio Werdum and has not been seen in action since. It was rumored that the UFC and Arlosvki could not come to terms on a new contract in the past 11 months. The fight with Werdum was the last on his old contract. This fight is an extension of that contract. On HDnet’s Inside MMA show last week, Arlovski declined to comment on any negotiation talks between himself and the UFC. It is not known at this time if any new contract has been signed.
The UFC will not want to promote a fighter that is not under a long term contract with them, so that is probably why Arlovski has been placed on the under card.
If the UFC and Arlovski come to terms before March 2nd, I would expect to see the Arlovski/O’Brien fight on the main card.
This entry was posted
on Monday, February 4th, 2008 at 6:57 pm by Larry Vollmer.
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Jake O’Brien vs Andrei Arlovski? That’s not a good fight. Jake is way too new and limited in his strikes to really take it to Arlovski. Why not Cro Cop? Brandon Vera? Andrei shouldn’t be on the undercard. Give him a challenge “No offense Jake.” The Luke Cummo fight should be good though.
Who I would pick to win?
1.Dan Henderson
2.Cheick Kongo
3.Evan Tanner
4.Jon Fitch
5.Diego Sanchez
6.Andrei Arlovski
7.Luke Cummo
8.Josh Koscheck
9.John Halverson
Hey Russ – thanks for checking in.
I think your picks are pretty good except I think that Heath Herring is going to beat Cheick Kongo.
The UFC has had trouble getting in touch with Cro Cop and Dana White gave him until today to let the organization know what he is doing. I am interested to see what happens. I’ll be blogging about it.
Brandon Vera broke his hand in his last fight. He is rumored to fight again in June.
Larry,
I would rather see this fight than Diego “loser” Sanchez any day. I was a Diego fan until he fought Josh Koscheck. Totally wimped out on that one. Herring lost to Irish Jake but he is on the main card and Irish Jake is not. Why? Dana’s ego is more important than his UFC fans. I also sent an email complaint to the UFC.com site. Just maybe if enough fans speak out Dana will relent. Diego has lost his last two fights. Both Andrei and Jake won their last one. They both deserve better.
The main problem I see with Heath Herring is that he fights with one hand around his waist and the other too near his head. Giving an opponent an opening to his face and no way to fence off punches with his other hand. Cheick is a kick boxer and he can exploit that. If they goto the ground though, then Heath has more then enough power to ground and pound Ceick . It will be a tough fight. I just hope both guys come out fighting. The Chuck Liddell vs Silva fight was a great fight because both men fought so hard and both men won. I would love to see more fights like that.
Russ – He does drop that one hand a lot. I think if he is smart he will take Kongo down and ground and pound him out or submit him. If anyone learned anything from the Carmelo Marrero/Kongo fight , it is that Kongo has a huge whole in his game. That hole was exploited when Marrero took him to the ground.
Herring has won a majority of of his fights via submission so I’d expect that he would take him down early.
If he decides to stand with Kongo, then this fight will probably be his to lose.