Affliction Banned: Andrei Arlovski vs. Ben Rothwell Preview
Posted by Dave Walsh on July 14th, 2008
By Dave Walsh
Affliction’s Banned is just a matter of days away now, as they present audiences with one of the most stacked cards we’ve seen in the US in a very long time, featuring 8 top heavyweights in four great fights. Three of these will be the main attraction on the PPV show, with Aleks Emelienenko vs. Paul Buentello headlining the Fox Sports Net portion of the show on cable. The first of what we can consider the three main events features IFL stand-out Ben Rothwell against former UFC Heavyweight Champion Andrei Arlovski.
For Rothwell, this fight signifies his step into the upper echelons of competition. Rothwell, whose last loss was back in February of 2005 against Dan Christison, has been on quite a roll the past few years, steamrolling any competition thrown at him in the rather bleak heavyweight division outside of the UFC, with his last win a decision victory against another former UFC Heavyweight Champion, Ricco Rodriguez. While Ricco is nowhere near the Ricco that was heavyweight champ, it was still a step in the right direction for Rothwell. One has to imagine that two wins over former UFC Heavyweight Champions can only do wonders for Big Ben’s career.
With Rothwell, though, his size, speed and conditioning have to come into play. Rothwell is not by any means a small fighter, and on top of that, he is not in optimal shape. When I see him, I think of a shorter Jan Nortje, which really isn’t a compliment as much as it is something to go on a checklist. His conditioning as well can be called into question, while he was able to go the distance with Ricco, Ricco isn’t exactly known to be in fighting shape. Ricco, if anything, is in shape to eat a buffet out of business. Rothwell is slow and lumbering compared to Andrei Arlovski, which is not a good thing.
Arlovski is a man that really needs no introduction, after Frank Mir’s motorcycle accident submitted Tim Sylvia to win the Interim Heavyweight Championship in UFC, he then went on to crush Eilers and Buentello in impressive fashion, and the reality in UFC’s Heavyweight Division was that he was untouchable. At least it seemed that way, then Tim Sylvia was given another shot at the belt, and in the first round Andrei was caught with a right and that was that. Four months later we were treated to a rematch, which featured a newly gun shy Andrei Arlovski, and the past 4 years of the Pit Bull destroying anything in his path seemed to be all but lost. We were “treated” to a long, dragged out 5-round decision loss to Sylvia, it was hard to not turn on Andrei. Andrei came in hard for his next fight, knocking out the ground wizard Marcio “Pe de Pano” Cruz. But against strikers, he still looked gun shy, eeking out a decision over Fabricio Werdum and being extra careful with Jake O’Brien, scoring a TKO in the second against a guy with not-so-great standup.
That was it for Andrei Arlovski’s career in the UFC, an untelevised undercard bout against the then-released Jake O’Brien (now resigned just in time to oppose Affliction!). Arlovski realized at this point that the UFC was not the place for him. The thing that makes this fight so interesting is, we will see exactly where Arlovski is mentally and physically. Arlovski has been working with top boxing coach Freddie Roach to help improve his already deadly stand up. Andrei has proven to have the power, speed and mental ability to outbox just about any MMA Heavyweight, and while he did fall on rough times, he has shown with this move that he is very serious about getting back into top form. If the Pitbull of old shows up, fear for Rothwell and his chin.
Much like the rest of this card and its heavyweight features, this fight has a few possible outcomes, and each outcome can mean completely different things. If Arlovski loses this fight, what will it mean for his career; will he simply decide to give up MMA and focus on boxing? Or will a win make him a top contender for whoemever emerges from Fedor/Sylvia as the WAMMA Heavyweight Champion? For Rothwell this is a litmus test; is Rothwell ready to hang with the elite, or is he simply a guy who can destroy menial competition in the Heavyweight division of smaller fight promotions? While a win over Arlovski won’t make him an immediate title contender or top 5 Heavyweight, this will put him in a spot to where he’ll have another big test soon, and another big win will make him a top heavyweight. All I know is that this is a very interesting fight that I cannot wait to see.
July 14th, 2008 at 2:53 pm
The rather bleak heavyweight division outside of the UFC? Don’t almost all the top heavyweights in the world fight outside the UFC?
July 14th, 2008 at 2:54 pm
And bodybuilders are now the epitome of cardio shape? Do better please, thnx.
July 14th, 2008 at 3:22 pm
Heavyweights everywhere are bleak.
July 14th, 2008 at 4:49 pm
Perhaps more accurate to say the “rather bleak IFL HW division”. Outside of Nelson, there wasn’t much there.
But really, it’s been the past year or so that the non-UFC HW division has improved (with Barnett returning, Rizzo stepping up, Anotnio Silva improving, Arlovski and Sylvia being released). During which time Rothwell was on the sidelines. When he was raking up wins in 06 and 07 it was pretty slim pickings out there.
July 14th, 2008 at 5:10 pm
I haven’t seen all of his IFL fights, but I know Alan has seen most of them, I’ve probably seen like two of them, and christ, their division, man. Their division.
I’m with Antelope, obviously, about the heavyweight division (at least in the US) getting way more depth in the past year or so. Having Fedor, Barnett and Aleks fighting in the US for a major organization is huge, and something I didn’t think we’d see unless UFC was ready to get serious. They weren’t, somebody else picked up the slack.
I should have been clear in saying US Heavyweights, which IFL actually had a lot of depth in, it was just that the depth was, you know, not the best.
July 14th, 2008 at 5:22 pm
That WAMMA belt is horrific.
July 14th, 2008 at 5:32 pm
It looks so bad. It just looks cheap, like they wasted the material on something so ridiculously ugly. Championship belts are supposed to be gaudy and have some sort of design, not just be this series of rounded plates.