Posts with the tag "Andrei Arlovski"

The EliteXC Heat event was actually pretty entertaining. You can find more on the event here. Of course I watched it with the aid of digital video recorder, so I didn't have to watch all the fluff. For me, the highlights where...

• Ken Shamrock out of the main event - This sucked at first, but got all the more interesting when Kimbo lost. By the way, did anybody actually remember that Seth Petruzelli actually was on The Ultimate Fightar 2?
• Benji Radach fighting style "facesmasher-fu" (or something like that) - I still can't find a reference to what the hell his fight style was, but he sure looked good kicking the crap out of Murilo Rua.
• The weigh-ins - The Kimbo-Shamrock escapade almost looked scripted but Carano getting naked had millions of fans watching.
• Seeing Jake Shields fight - Having never seen Shields fight, I was impressed. I can now justify putting him in my rankings.
• Andre Arlovski looked aggressive - I don't think the Arlovski of old is back, but he definitely showed some of the signs.

I am still waiting on the fallout from this event. What happens with Kimbo now? Who will Petruzelli fight next? Will pictures of Carano surface? These are the important questions.

OK, the head line is a little misleading, but the production of the "Banned" event was horrible. This might have been expected, but Affliction had a blueprint laid out by the UFC and they just couldn't make it work.

Things that didn't go well...

• Time Constraints - The first bout was scrapped due to... time constraints? How do you run out of time when the fights haven't even started?
• Energy & Sound - The event lacked real energy early on. Sound could have been a factor. The crowd noise wasn't piped in while the fighters walked in. The transitions from a fight to fight lacked any buildup.
• Camera Work - We saw some interesting camera work, during one fighter interview, the camera cut to an announcer where we could see he was getting his makeup applied.

I probably wouldn't have noticed the production values as much if there had been better fights. I had to wait until the Andrei Arlovski fight to finally say we had seen a decent fight and the Fedor Emelianenko and Tim Sylvia fight just left me with an empty feeling.

Overall, I have to give Affliction some credit for putting this thing together. They had awesome card (on paper) and delivered MMA fights which is what the fans really want. We got to see Fedor fight a legitimate opponent and he showed his awesome power. Now, lets see what Affliction can do for their sequel.

Before I forget, there were some great lines from the announcers. I don't have them all, but my favorite was "that was a 22 on the wow factor." I still can't figure out what the hell that means. Somebody please explain it to me.

What a fight and it will probably never be aired. I guess this is the UFC's attempt at keeping Arlovski's stock low as this is the last fight on his current contract. Maybe he will stay, but we will have to wait and see.

Jake O'Brien is a tough matchup for any heavyweight. He owns a perfect 10-0 record and made Heath Herring look bad in his last fight. The problem is that O'Brien hasn't fought in a year and is coming off surgery. He had a titanium rod implanted in his neck and cadaver discs in his spine. The question is, will he be the same fighter that he was before the surgery?

If O'Brien is 100%, then I think he can pull off another upset. Still, I have to imagine that he isn't. Not to mention that Arlovski will be super motivated now that he is looking for a new contract. Arlovski wins via knockout in the first round.