A mere two weeks after a close loss at UFC 225, former UFC heavyweight champion Andrei Arlovski has his next fight lined up.
Arlovski announced on his Instagram page that he’ll take on Shamil Abdurakhimov at UFC Fight Night: Moscow in the Russian capital on September 15th. The entire card streams live on UFC Fight Pass.
The booking was later confirmed by Arlovski’s management team to MMAjunkie.
Arlovski (27-16-1 NC) suffered a unanimous decision defeat to prospect Tai Tuivasa in Chicago earlier this month. He’d entered that contest on a two-fight win streak, defeating Junior Albini and Stefan Struve by decision. Preceding those victories was a five-fight losing skid, with four coming by stoppage. Despite all of this, Arlovski is still ranked #11.
Abdurakhimov (18-4) has yet to fight in 2018, but he did win his most recent bout last November, when he knocked out Chase Sherman at UFC Shanghai. The 36-year-old is 3-2 inside the Octagon, and Sherman was his first stoppage win in five years. Abdurakhimov also notably fought Derrick Lewis in the UFC Albany main event in December 2016, losing by fourth-round TKO.
The UFC is still looking for a main event for their debut card in Russia, as Fabricio Werdum’s USADA violation ruled him out of a potential showdown vs. Aleksei Oleinik.
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