Gymdb Blog

Fedor vs Arlovski

Well the hour is almost upon us, where Fedor will face another top 10 heavyweight - Andrei “The Pitbull” Arlovski, and despite the swiftness of how Fedor dispatched Tim Sylvia and the “pros” favoring Fedor a staggering 26 to 4, I have to say I don’t share their same level of optimism.

Sure if I had to put my money somewhere it would probably be Fedor, but I seriously wouldn’t disregard Arlovski so hastily. The man has been on a 5 fight winning tear, since his loss to Tim Sylvia and seems to be hungrier than a ravenous wolf and has faced far tougher competition over the same period as Emelianenko.

On this one it can seriously go either way, and at this point, only one thing is for sure - I, along with the entire MMA community is excited as hell for this epic showdown.

Updates to follow post batle…

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Mauricio “Shogun” Rua was the reason I got into MMA - he represented everything great and fun about MMA: Explosive, young, new, exciting etc… He captured the hearts of every single MMA fan back in 2005 when he blitzed through Overeem, Little Noguiera, Rampage and Arona, and all at the ripe young age of 23 to win the middle weight grand prix.

Well I am afraid that Shogun is gone. After two knee surgeries, a marriage and the apparent intense resource cost of starting and managing his own gym (Universidade da luta) things have taken their toll.

Is there any chance he will come back? Unlikely. He has been given two opportunities in the UFC, both times he has done nothing with them. The core issues are:
1. Lack of conditioning.
2. Lack of wrestling abilities.
3. Poor overall training regime. (Perpetually injuring himself).

Against his fight last night vs Mark Coleman he looked absolutely mauled, both physically and mentally . A fight which he should’ve won with absolute ease.

Even if he comes into his next fight with conditioning and the right mind-set, I just don’t see things going his way. Slated for UFC 97 against Chuck Liddell, I forsee Shoguns first KO loss, or more likely a decision loss. It absolutely breaks my heart to say it - but the dominant Shogun we saw winning the Middleweight GP is long gone.

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Hailing from Minnesota martial arts academy, many have not taken the well accomplished wrestler seriously due to his stint in the WWE.

From a rocky start he is now the UFC heavyweight champion - not an easy feat. Some may argue this is attributed to his size (rumored to hover over 300lbs when out of fight training cycles), but you cannot look past the fact the man is, at heart, a truly hard worker, well deserving of all his accomplishments.

Since beating Randy Couture it is rumoured that he will be attending Xtreme Couture gym for training.

His upcoming fight against Frank Mir will not be an easy one, since he was tapped out in under a minute in their first encounter. Despite Mir’s sharp performance against Noguiera, this time though I think Brock will be walking away with the Belt.

Interesting closing note: Lesnar was caught distributing steroids in 2001, although he was never charged.

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Shogun, one of my personal favorite fighters was a former Chuteboxe fighter who was once ranked the top light heavyweight fighter in the world recently started his own gym Universidade da luta, or UDL for short.

He also got married recently, as well as being handed his first loss in sometime at the hands of Forrest Griffin.

Thus he has been somewhat derailed recently. If he looses (again) and to Mark Coleman it solidifies his much touted over-rated status as well as seriously puts an exclamation mark in the down turn of his career.

It also further smears the now dead PRIDE organisation.

On the other hand if Mark Coleman, training out of Hammer House looses - it can only be good overall.

On a side-note, be sure to check out Colemans pre-fight interview - the biggest 205′er I’ve ever seen.

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