Even Andrei Arlovski knew there was no cause for celebration.
Moments after the judges confirmed his unanimous-decision win over Frank Mir on Saturday in the co-main event of UFC 191, Arlovski stood in the middle of the cage, shaking his head and apologizing.
“The crowd is right to boo me,” the 36-year-old Pit Bull told UFC color commentator Joe Rogan during his postfight interview. “I’m disappointed because I underestimated him. … To be honest with you, I thought it was going to be an easy fight, but it wasn’t.”
Arlovski got that right.
This wasn’t an easy fight for anyone, including fans who sat through a mostly underwhelming pay-per-view card and hoped the two former heavyweight champions could provide the night’s only fireworks. Instead, Mir and Arlovski slogged to a tepid 15-minute decision that only squandered the momentum each had built up during recent career turnarounds.
In the wake of his sixth straight victory, expect the hype around Arlovski to cool considerably. After UFC President Dana White came to the postfight press conference to announce yet another unexpected delay at the top of the heavyweight division, the lackluster performance may well hit the reset button on the entire 265-pound title picture:
To add insult to injury, White told hosts on the Fox Sports 2 postfight show (h/t MMA Junkie’s Mike Bohn) he thought the judges got it wrong: “It wasn’t what I expected it to be, but I actually had Mir winning that fight. I was expecting that fight to look more like Travis Browne and Arlovski than the fight that it was. These guys are two big, hard-hitting heavyweights and they went three rounds.”
Perhaps it was our own fault for having lofty expectations for the two 36-year-old bruisers.
Arlovski came in riding high on a five-fight win streak, including three straight in the UFC since returning to the company in June 2014. When the UFC hinted last month it would book new champ Fabricio Werdum an immediate rematch against Cain Velasquez, some fans bristled because they thought Arlovski was more deserving.
Mir was also on the rebound, having distanced himself from a four-fight skid with back-to-back knockout wins so far in 2015.
Had Arlovski starched him in the first round, there would have been a long line of observers ready to make the case he ought to be next for the Werdum vs. Velasquez winner. Now, the door is open for someone else to cut the line.
Matchmakers recently confirmed a pair of upcoming heavyweight bouts that could provide another suitable No. 1 contender.
Ben Rothwell puts his own three-fight win streak on the line against Stipe Miocic at UFC Fight Night 76 on October 24. Two months later, former champion Junior dos Santos is scheduled to return to the cage after more than a yearlong absence to fight Alistair Overeem at UFC on Fox 17 on December 19.
Either of the men who emerge victorious from those fights might lay legitimate claim to the next title opportunity. Now that we know Werdum will be on extended R&R until spring, however, the rub is that anyone who wants to stay in the hunt will almost certainly have to take another fight in the interim.
That could be good news for Arlovski, who might use the chance to erase this most recent outing from our memories.
“I was so pumped for this fight,” lamented Fox Sports 1 analyst and former UFC fighter Yves Edwards when it was over. “I’ve been waiting for this fight for 10 years and then it finally happened tonight and—it was not as exciting as I wanted it to be.”
Heavyweight MMA bouts typically go one of two ways: short and thrilling or long and tedious.
Arlovski vs. Mir certainly fit into the second category.
Early on, it was clear that Arlovski enjoyed a speed and technique advantage. He peppered Mir with shots during the first round while managing to steer clear of the kind of thunderous counterpunch Mir used to fell Todd Duffee in July.
Mir was able to nab a couple of takedowns, however, and Arlovski seemed mostly content to tie him up and wait for a referee stand-up. By the third round, things had devolved into the sort of stasis that often makes the heavyweight ranks the sport’s most ridiculed division:
As Arlovski’s scorecard victory was announced (29-28, 29-28, 30-27) the crowd jeered, not because the decision was wrong but just because the fight had been so lousy. He didn’t even smile as referee John McCarthy raised his hand.
Mir—a veteran of 26 Octagon appearances and the UFC’s longest-tenured active fighter—made a face as if to say, “Oh, really? Huh.” Then he simply walked away, as if it was just another day at the office.
Maybe Mir had it right.
This was nothing special.
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