A decade ago, when the UFC was struggling to keep pace with the heavyweight renaissance emanating out of Japan, a fight between Andrei Arlovski and Frank Mir was one of the best pairings the promotion could’ve put on.
And somehow, all these years later, it remains just as relevant.
A match-up between the two resurgent legends is being targeted for UFC 191, MMAFighting.com’s Ariel Helwani reported Wednesday on UFC Tonight. The fight has yet to be finalized at the time of this writing.
Arlovski and Mir have both seemingly defied Father Time, revamping their games to mount simultaneous title runs at the age of 36.
While Mir’s recent success is surprising, the streak Arlovski (24-10, 1 NC) is currently on may be one of the most unexpected in the history of the division.
The former UFC heavyweight champion was effectively left for dead back in 2011, having suffered four straight losses, three of which ended in grisly knockouts. Calls for his retirement were abundant at the time, but Arlovski persevered to win six of his next eight wins and earn a second shot in the UFC.
It’s there he truly blossomed, ripping off another three consecutive victories highlighted by back-to-back first-round knockouts over Antonio Silva and Travis Browne. The latter win came in one of the wildest fights of the year and propelled Arlovski into a No. 4 ranking, inching him to the precipice of title contention.
To get another shot at gold though, he’ll likely have to defeat Mir (18-9), a fellow former UFC heavyweight champion who suddenly finds himself riding a wave of momentum after spurning calls for retirement.
Much like Arlovski, Mir rebounded from a nasty four-fight losing streak to catapult into his latest run with back-to-back knockouts over Silva and Todd Duffee. He is currently the No. 10 ranked heavyweight in the UFC’s media-generated rankings.
UFC 191 takes place September 5 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. An updated fight card can be found below.
- Demetrious Johnson vs. John Dodson
- Paige VanZant vs. Alex Chambers
- Anthony Johnson vs. Jan Blachowicz
- John Lineker vs. Francisco Rivera
- Nazareno Malegarie vs. Joaquim Silva