Andrei Arlovski

Andrei “The Pitbull” Arlovski has been one of the most exciting heavyweights the UFC has featured over the last four years or so. He is a Sambo, Kickboxing, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu fighter who looks to outstrike his opponents.

Arlovski started fighting while he was a member of a Belarus Police Department, and was ordered to join the National Sambo Team. He went on to win a world title in Sambo and left the police, and Belarus, to become a world-class MMA fighter.

Arlovski was knocked out in his first MMA fight but was not deterred; winning his next four, including his UFC debut against Aaron Brink in UFC 28. He was put in some tough fights early in his career against top-ranked fighters, and had losses to Pedro Rizzo in UFC 36 and Ricco Rodriguez in UFC 32. Again undeterred, he won his next six fights including a win over Tim Sylvia for the interim UFC Heavyweight Title, and two defenses of that title in UFC 53 and 55. The interim title was changed to UFC Heavyweight Title four months before he was set to fight Sylvia again.

He lost the belt to Sylvia at UFC 59 and also the rubber match to him in UFC 61. Since then he has lacklustre wins over Marcio Cruz in UFC 66 and Fabricio Werdum at UFC 70. The Werdum fight was so defensive that the two were told that the first one to back up would lose a point at the beginning of the third round.

Arlovski’s current record stands at 12-5 and he continues to be popular with the fans because he is a Sambo fighter. He trains and lives in Chicago, Illinois, with Mike Garcia as his boxing coach and Dino Costeas as his Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu coach. He has also been training with current champ Randy Couture. Now that his nemesis Tim Sylvia has lost the title to Randy Couture, Arlovski may once again challenge for the UFC Heavyweight Title.