Once upon a time Andrei Arlvoski was the UFC Heavyweight champion. Now he’s fighting Mike Kyle at the World Series of Fighting 5 on NBC Sports this Saturday. To promote the fight Arlvoski is doing the rounds of interviews.
He told MMA Mania all about training at Greg Jackson’s MMA with UFC Light Heavyweight champ Jon Jones:
“We train a lot and spar a lot,” Arlovski said. “He is my main sparring partner because he has a fight on Sept. 21 at UFC 165 after me. The last couple of weeks I’ve had probably the best sparring sessions I‘ve had in the last couple years, because we tried to show each other who we are, and it was very productive and very interesting sparring … at least for me.
“He is a champion in the UFC. He has also good kicks, good quick hands,” Arlovski said, explaining the benefits of working with “Bones” in preparation for his WSOF 5 fight. “His boxing is probably really close to Mike Kyle. He helped me a lot. I think it was great and will work out for both of us. I hope I helped Jon Jones, too.”
He told MMA Fighting that he’s tired of hearing about his “weak chin:”
“It’s f–ked. I’m really getting f–king sick of all these comments about my chin. I broke my jaw in two f–king places and f–king Anthony Johnson couldn’t f–king knock me out. So if you’re going to talk to Mike Kyle, you can just tell him to shut his f–king mouth and be ready for the f–king fight. That’s it. Period.
“It kind of bothers me. People who say or write those comments about me are people who spend all the time on their couch all day long laying down and watching TV.
“It kind of pisses me off. I don’t read those comments like I used to read those comments. I showed my chin was fine when I fought Tim Sylvia in the Philippines, when our fight was a no contest. He landed a good straight right hand at the end of the first round and I was fine. I survived and knocked him out. Those people say [I don’t] have a good chin, now this guy? It’s okay. Just fine. To be honest with you, I don’t know what to say in a nice way. It’s one of those bad spots in my mind.”
Bloody Elbow will have complete coverage of WSOF 5 this weekend.
SBN coverage of World Series of Fighting 5
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