regardless of what happened between sylvia and arlovski ( they fought a total of 3 times , arlovski beat him the first time but sylvia finished him in their 2nd fight and won a decision in their 3rd ) Arlovski has a real potential to pull one of the biggest upset in mma history. I'm not saying it will happen "for sure"... but it's not out of the equation. Arlovski doesn't throw looping punches , he's been training with roach for about a period of 10 weeks... Fedor trained a total of 4 weeks. OF COURSE , it's mma , and the most important thing isn't just striking but the ensemble. and the first who's able to capitalise on the other guy's weaknesses will have the major advantage. in this case , fedor's best chances are on the ground. In Arlovski's case , it's striking but let's also not forget that he's got legit skills in sambo , knows his submissions too. But of course so does fedor. Fedor has the workrate / cardio advantage , if the fight goes the distance , arlovski will have to find a way to keep the same pace for the entire duration of the fight. and that's gonna be very difficult. Back in 2005 , (when crocop was ranked # 3 and was in his prime ) , he was landing brutal shots in the first round , was more accurate too but he still ended up losing because emelianenko's workrate was too much to deal with. Also fedor was fast enough to avoid most of crocop's attacks , which enabled him to chase him around the ring , close the distance & force him to go on the ground. & even though crocop had a wonderful ground defense , it was a work in futility since he couldn't submit emelianenko..and of course fedor kept attacking him nonstop for the entire duration of the fight. So the most crucial part of arlovski vs fedor will probably happen in the 1rst round. will arlovski be capable to take advantage in the first few minutes ? His best chance is to find a way to KO emelianenko out cold. but he if doesn't...and repeat crocop's mistakes , he's in for a long night. Thing is , prime for prime..crocop was more powerful , faster & accurate and he still couldn't do it.But of course , anything can happen... Afterall Fujita almost did it. Hunt was at one point dominating him. Who knew that Serra was gonna finish GSP ? Or that Buster Douglas was the one to end tyson's winning streak ? Was anyone expecting Rahman to finish Lennox in less than 6 or 5 rounds ? Fedor recently lost a decision in sambo. (a ridiculously close decision), ok sambo isn't mma but still.. and he only had 4 weeks to train for his fight vs arlovski... will it affect the outcome of the fight ? I guess only time will tell. All i'm saying , Arlovski is a serious threat. Having said all that ,i'm personally predicting fedor to win this one. i think he'll either finish him by tko , submission or decision. I don't see him KOing arlovski though. IMO , arlovski's only chance is to KO fedor. Or maybe , somehow manage to pull an achilles lock or a kneebar. I don't see him grabbing a decision though. I truely hope to see fedor totally dominating his opponent again...i don't think it'll be as quick as his last fight , but i see a total domination. But of course , maybe we're in for a major shock. Arlovski's chance of winning isn't huge but it's there. it could happen. anyway , here are two afflicition vids [yt]wi2nHKHbsyQ[/yt] [yt]3t7f25eiywY[/yt]
in mma anything can happen. i think the biggest upset in MMA history right now is GSP lost to Matt serra. But if arlovski beats fedor. That will be the biggest upset in MMA history. Like when Tyson lost to buster douglas
AA beating Fedor isn't the same as buster beating Tyson or Serra beating GSP....AA is a top 5 HW and has all the tools to beat Fedor which I think he will do tonight.
