Andrei Arlovski

MMAstatsbox|name=Andrei Arlovski
nick=The Pitbull


imagesize=(145 × 225 pixels
height=height|ft=6|in=3
weight=convert|240|lb|kg st|abbr=on
nationality= flagicon|Belarus Belarusian
birthdate=birth date and age|mf=yes|year=1979|month=2|day=4
died=
fightingfrom= flagicon|USA Chicago, Illinois
hometown= flagicon|USSR Minsk, Byelorussian SSR, Soviet Union
fightteam=Team Pitbull
fightstyle=Boxing, Kickboxing, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Sambo, Wrestling
wins=15
losses=5
draws=0
nocontest=
ko=11
submissions=3
|decisions=1|

Andrei Arlovski ( _be. Андрэй Арлоўскі, born February 4, 1979 in Minsk) is a Belarusian mixed martial arts fighter and a former Ultimate Fighting Championship heavyweight champion.

Many major MMA publications have considered Arlovski to be one of the top ten ranked heavyweight fighters in the world. [ [http://www.mmaweekly.com/absolutenm/templates/dailynews.asp?articleid=4081&zoneid=13 MMA WEEKLY - Your #1 Source for Daily MMA News, Interviews, Multimedia, and More: - MMAWEEKLY WORLD MMA RANKINGS UPDATED ] ] [ [http://www.fcfighter.com/ranking Full Contact Fighter Gear, Ultimate Fighting (UFC), Mixed Martial Arts ] ] [ [http://www.insidefighting.com/mma_rankings.aspx/cat=1 InsideFighting.com - MMA Rankings ] ] [ [http://www.mmanews.com/page.php?page=rankings UFC & MMA Top Ten Unofficial Rankings, Standings, Top 10 - MMANEWS.com ] ] [ [http://www.sherdog.com/news/rankings.asp?n_id=8577&my_page=2 Sherdog’s Official Mixed Martial Arts Rankings ] ]

Biography

Andrei Arlovski grew up in Minsk, Byelorussian SSR (now known as Belarus) where he became an accomplished Sambo competitor. When he was younger, bullies often picked on him and beat him up. In 1994, when he was 14 years old, he finally had enough and started lifting weights to put on muscle and, he hoped, to help him deal with these bullies. Andrei only took up martial arts at the age of 16 having previously been interested in soccer. It was an interest in personal fitness and conditioning that led Arlovski to take an interest in combat sports. [ [http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0KFY/is_8_23/ai_n15628782/pg_1 Andrei Arlovski Article by Terry Goodlad (October 2005)] ]

Enrolling at the police academy in Minsk, Arlovski combined his interest in a career in law enforcement with his growing martial arts participation by taking up the required police defense course of Sambo, and quickly showed himself to be a highly competent Sambo exponent. In 1999, Andrei won the European Youth Sambo Championship and the World Youth Championship. Not long after, Andrei became the first Master of Sports, and then International Master of Sports. He also took a silver medal at the Sambo World Cup and another silver medal at the World Sambo Championship. [http://www.ufc.com/index.cfm?fa=fighter.detail&pid=14 UFC® : Ultimate Fighting Championship® ] ]

Arlovski began taking a greater interest in other martial arts, studying kickboxing and developing his striking skills to complement his Sambo-based grappling abilities.

MMA career

At the age of 20, Arlovski began his professional MMA career at the [http://www.mixfight.ru/ Mix Fight M-1] in St Petersburg, Russia on April 9, 1999. It was a fairly inauspicious start, losing by KO to the un-heralded Viacheslav Datsik. Not deterred, Arlovski returned in 2000 to M-1 Global at the European Championships, taking the heavyweight crown with a submission victory and a KO victory.

UFC

Arlovski made his Ultimate Fighting Championship debut at "", defeating Aaron Brink by submission. He was then thrown in against top opposition early on in his UFC career, taking tough losses against future UFC heavyweight champion Ricco Rodriguez and heavyweight contender Pedro Rizzo. Despite those early defeats, wins over future British light heavyweight champion Ian Freeman and future IFL light heavyweight champion Vladimir Matyushenko propelled Arlovski back into the UFC elite.

A motorcycle accident injury suffered by UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir in 2004 led to the creation of an "interim heavyweight title". It was decided that the two top heavyweight contenders would meet to declare the interim champion. On February 5, 2005 at "", Arlovski would face the former heavyweight champion, Tim Sylvia. The two competitors were well known for their hard hitting style, with Sylvia having won ten of his last twelve fights by KO or TKO. Arlovski showed greater mobility and accuracy when striking. He connected with an overhand right and dropped Sylvia, following up with an ankle lock on the ground that forced Sylvia to tap out at 47 seconds of the first round, making Arlovski the new UFC interim heavyweight champion.

Arlovski defended his interim title on June 4, 2005 at "", against Justin Eilers. Andrei won the bout by TKO in the first round. After the fight, it was revealed that Eilers suffered extensive injuries in this match including a badly broken nose, two broken hands and a complete ACL tear. [ [http://www.sherdog.com/news/news.asp?n_id=2952 Advertising at Sherdog.com ] ]

In October, Arlovski once again defended the interim heavyweight title at "" against top contender Paul Buentello. Arlovski knocked out Buentello in 15 seconds of the opening round. On August 12, 2005, the UFC announced that it now recognized Arlovski as the undisputed heavyweight champion, as Frank Mir had not fully rehabilitated from his motorcycle accident.

In a rematch with Tim Sylvia at "" on April 15, 2006, Arlovski knocked Sylvia down with a right hand punch early in the first round. Sylvia was able to protect himself and recovered almost immediately. While Arlovski tried to finish Sylvia with a right lead, Sylvia countered with a short right uppercut to the chin, knocking Arlovski to the mat. Sylvia followed up with punches on the ground until referee Herb Dean stopped the match at 2:43 of the first round.

The rubber match between Tim Sylvia and Arlovski took place on July 8, 2006 at . In what turned out to be a 5 round battle of attrition, neither fighter was able to KO the other, or even land any truly significant blows. In the end Sylvia won the fight by unanimous decision. It was later discovered that Arlovski had actually been significantly injured by a checked leg kick sometime in the second round which left him unable to throw kicks of his own or make any takedown attempts. Arlovski did not report his injury during the fight, as is required by UFC rules; indeed, the injury may never have been known except that it was leaked that Arlovski was having an MRI done on his leg a week after the fight. The injury caused his ankle and knee on his left leg to swell up to about four times its normal size. When confronted by a reporter about the MRI, Arlovski avoided responding directly and would only say "I do not want to talk about my injuries or look for any other excuses" [ [http://www.bullz-eye.com/sports/interviews/2006/andrei_arlovski-post.htm Andrei Arlovski conversation, Andrei Arlovski UFC 61, Andrei Arlovski injury, Andrei Arlovski suspension ] ] Not too long after it was also revealed Sylvia had sustained an injury as he fainted at his hotel room, and upon hospital examination, doctors discovered a concussion undetected after the match. [ [http://www.sherdog.com/news/radio.asp?id=63 Beatdown: UFC Champ Sylvia Talks Title Defense ] ]

Arlovski made his next appearance on December 30, 2006, at against Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt Márcio Cruz. After being taken down, he illegally kicked Cruz in the head. When the referee intervened, he decided, because of Cruz's insistence, to allow both fighters to stay on the ground as opposed to standing them up, as is the general practice. Thereafter, Arloski struck Cruz with a strong blow to the chin, then continued beating Cruz with hammerfists until the fight was stopped.

Arlovski fought PRIDE Fighting Championships veteran and two-time world Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu champion Fabricio Werdum at and won by unanimous decision. Both fighters kept their distance for the majority of the fight, causing the referee to inform them at the beginning of the third round that he would remove a point from the first fighter to retreat in that round. Although Arlovski won the fight by unanimous decision, many boos could be heard from the crowd. After the fight Arlovski apologized to the fans for fighting for the full fifteen minutes. [http://www.fightauthority.com/ultimate-fighters-martial-artists/ultimate-fighters/andrei-arlovski/]

After 11 months of inactivity, Arlovski made his return to the octagon for the final time at and defeated Jake O'Brien by TKO in round two. With this win, Arlovski gave O'Brien his first ever MMA loss. [ [http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/080301/sports/mma_ufc82 Arlovski downs O'Brien on undercard of UFC 82: Pride of a Champion - Yahoo! Canada News ] ] This was Arlovski's final fight on his UFC contract. [ [http://fiveouncesofpain.com/2008/01/18/report-andrei-arlovski-for-fight-at-ufc-82/ Report: Andrei Arlovski to fight at UFC 82 :Five Ounces of Pain ] ]

Arlovski left the UFC with a record of 9-4 and an overall MMA record of 14-5. [ [http://www.arlovski.tv/#fights Official Website of Andrei The Pit Bull Arlovski ] ]

Affliction

After leaving the UFC, Arlovski signed with the newly created MMA-promotion Affliction and participated in their inaugural event "" on July 19, 2008. He fought and defeated top ranked heavyweight fighter and former IFL heavyweight stand-out Ben Rothwell by KO in the final round of the fight, ending Rothwell's 13 fight win streak and giving him his first defeat in over 3 years. [ [http://www.mmaweekly.com/absolutenm/templates/dailynews.asp?articleid=6695&zoneid=13 AFFLICTION BANNED RESULTS & LIVE PLAY-BY-PLAY - MMA WEEKLY - Mixed Martial Arts & UFC News, Photos, Rankings & more ] ]

Originally scheduled to face former UFC heavyweight champion and top-ranked heavyweight Josh Barnett in the main event at Affliction's second pay-per-view entitled "" on October 11, 2008, the event however was rescheduled and Arlovski instead faced the first ever and last reigning IFL heavyweight champion Roy Nelson at "" on October 4, 2008 in Sunrise, Florida in a co-promotion with EliteXC. Arlovski won the fight via KO in the second round and in the process became the only man to ever finish Nelson in his 16 fight MMA career. [http://www.mmaweekly.com/absolutenm/templates/dailynews.asp?articleid=7194&zoneid=13]

Most recently, it was announced that Arlovski would be participating in the newly rescheduled "" pay-per-view event in co-promotion with reknown boxing promotion Golden Boy Promotions on January 24, 2009 in Anaheim, California at the Honda Center. He'll be fighting former PRIDE heavyweight champion and current World Alliance of Mixed Martial Arts heavyweight champion Fedor Emelianenko for the WAMMA heavyweight belt. [http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2008/10/10/632513/fedor-emelianenko-vs-andre]

Boxing

Arlovski has been training with legendary boxing trainer Freddie Roach. Roach has trained many boxing champions such as Mike Tyson, Oscar De La Hoya, Bernard Hopkins and Manny Pacquiao. [ [http://www.cagepotato.com/2008/06/17/freddie-roach-to-corner-arlovski-at-affliction-banned » Freddie Roach to Corner Arlovski at Affliction: Banned ] ]

Personal life

Arlovski currently lives and trains in Chicago, Illinois. His boxing coach is Freddie Roach, and he trains in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu with Dino Costeas at POW Martial Arts. He also has been training with UFC Hall of Famer Randy Couture.

Arlovski dated Playboy Cybergirl Patrycja Mikula for over two years before going their separate ways. [ [http://ufcjunkie.com/2007/04/14/a-ufcjunkiecom-interview-with-andrei-arlovski "UFC Junkie- Arlovski Interview" (2007)] ] [ [http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/mma_experts/post/Sylvia-and-Arlovski-next-on-Jerry-Springer?urn=mma,88430 Sylvia and Arlovski, next on Jerry Springer - Update Mikula denies Sylvia ... - Mixed Martial Arts - Yahoo! Sports ] ]

Other facts

* Andrei's ring entrance music "Onward to Victory" is performed by Icepick, the side project of Hatebreed frontman Jamey Jasta.
* Andrei stated in an interview with British MMA magazine "Fighters Only" that he likes to skydive. This was confirmed in an interview on UFC.com.
* Andrei appeared on an episode of the Jerry Springer Show on September 26, 2007 as a guest bodyguard.
*Andrei was a police officer back in his homeland of Belarus.

MMA championships

*UFC Undisputed Heavyweight Champion
*UFC Interim Heavyweight Champion
*M-1 MFC-European Heavyweight Champion

ambo championships

*Master of Sport
*International Master of Sport
*European Youth Sambo Champion
*Silver medalist at the Sambo World Cup
*Silver medalist at the World Sambo Championship

Mixed martial arts record

References

External links

*
* [http://www.arlovski.tv Official Andrei Arlovski web site]
* [http://www.myspace.com/arlovski Official Myspace site]

Championshiptitle|11th|UFC|Heavyweight|Frank Mir|Tim Sylvia|*2/5/2005 - 8/12/2005 as Interim &
*8/12/2005 - 4/15/2006 as Undisputed