In a battle of former UFC heavyweight champions, it was Andrei Arlovski who proved he has a little more in the tank with a unanimous decision victory (29-28, 29-28, 30-27) over Frank Mir at UFC 191.
Although the fight was billed as a throwback slugfest of sorts, it didn’t live up to the hype as both fighters showed signs of age throughout.
“Arlovski, for whatever reason, never seemed able to get his offense untracked, never showed off his knockout power, even when Mir repeatedly dropped his hands late in the second round to attempt to goad Arlovski,” MMAFighting.com’s Dave Doyle wrote.
Even Arlovski was disappointed with his effort, according to MMAFighting.com’s Shaheen Al-Shatti:
The heavyweight battle served as the co-main event at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. With both 36-year-olds well into their second decade of fighting, the most significant surprise in this matchup might be that they’ve never met before.
As Mir said in the lead up to the match, it was an opponent he’s looked forward to fighting several times before.
“I’ve been around long enough to know that you never say never,” Mir told Dave Doyle of MMAFighting.com. “For a long, long time, this looked like the match that just wasn’t meant to be, but I always knew that if the opportunity to fight Andrei came up, I’d take it.”
At one point in time, this would have been a matchup of the year. Both fighters have had their reign as a legitimate top heavyweight. Now, Arlovski is one step closer to making a run at that title again.
After all, this is the division currently run by 38-year-old Fabricio Werdum. When Vai Cavalo came to the UFC in 2011 on the heels of an uninspiring decision loss to Alistair Overeem, expectations were low. Now he’s the champion with a six-fight win streak.
The Pitbull’s path is starting to look a bit familiar.
Arlovski seemed to be done four years ago. He was on a four-fight losing streak with three of them coming under the Strikeforce banner. Now, this victory caps a six-fight win streak of his own including knockout wins over Antonio Silva and Travs Browne.
It’s a fantastic story in a division that is short on compelling ones right now. If Arlovski has anything to say about it’s one that he might just parlay into a second title run.
“It (the story) is not gonna end anytime soon,” he said per Thomas Gerbasi of UFC.com. “It’s just the beginning of a new journey. The UFC has Arlovski 2.0 and I’m just getting better and better. I still have fire in my eyes, and I’m ready to go. It’s one step at a time. To beat Frank Mir on September 5th, and hopefully one day I’m gonna fight for the title.”
That dream isn’t too far off now. Arlovski entered the bout as the No. 4 ranked fighter in the UFC’s heavyweight rankings. With yet another impressive victory, the line to challenge the winner of a rematch between Cain Velasquez and Werdum is getting rather short.
With a long-awaited win over Mir, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Arlovski 2.0 get the next crack at the heavyweight championship.
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