Derek Bolender over at MMAmania has an interview with Andrei Arlovski up. There aren’t a lot of “groundbreaking statements” but there is some insight into Andrei’s mindset on a few topics:
Derek Bolender (MMAmania.com): After the fight your boxing coach Freddie Roach said that Fedor simply “got lucky” with his punch. Do you feel the same way?
Andrei Arlovski: For me that doesn’t make sense now whether he was lucky or not. He caught me. He knocked me out. This is fact. He got the best of me. Of course I still hurt after this. I am going to chase him everywhere and hope I can one day face him again. Next time I’ll be much smarter than I was before.
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Derek Bolender (MMAmania.com): Do you still intend to pursue your pro boxing career as well?
Andrei Arlovski: Yes, after June 6 I will have a match on June 27 at the Staples Center.
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Derek Bolender (MMAmania.com): You mentioned the weight difference, which is roughly 25 pounds. Do you anticipate that being a factor in the fight?
Andrei Arlovski: You know I am not going to be 237 like I was in January. I put on some weight and I am a little stronger than I was before. I don’t know we’ll see. He’s a good striker and likes to box and we’ll see what happens.
Also, I train a lot in wrestling and jiu-jitsu. If he wants to standup we’ll stand up. If I think I can take him down I’ll take him down. If I have to do a leg lock or choke him of course that’s something I’ll do. If I feel like the opportunity for my hands then I’ll take him out. It just depends on what kind of fight it will be.
I think his honesty in discussing the Fedor fight is refreshing. It would be easy to say “I was winning and he got lucky” but he admits that he got knocked out and there isn’t anything else to it but to win and get a rematch.
The two interesting factors here are the boxing and mass aspects. He has to be focusing a fair amount on his boxing if he plans to make his pro boxing debut 3 weeks after fighting Rogers. This is a safer fight for him to maybe not train the other aspects of his game since Rogers likely isn’t going to turn this into a ground fight. But still, one has to wonder if he is maybe taking Rogers a little lightly.
Also, sometimes putting on “some weight” for strength is a bad thing for a guy who relies on timing/speed based striking like Andrei. He isn’t a “speed” guy, but he relies on fast combinations and overlooked footwork. I’ve seen plenty of guys decide to “put on some strength” and find that in a fight they’re either slower than normal or tire faster because the muscles alter how their body reacts to the pressures of a fight.
I’m slowly finding some intriguing angles to this heavyweight clash. It is still clearly Arlovski’s fight to lose though.