In 2012, two former stars of the UFC’s heavyweight division looked to end their rivalry with one last chapter.
Tim Sylvia only competed 13 times inside the Octagon but the former champion certainly made his mark in that time.
After competing for the UFC for the last time in 2008, with Sylvia claiming that Dana White blocked his return, the knockout artist competed for several other promotions.
Throughout his career, there was one opponent that he was more closely tied to than anyone else.
Andrei Arlovski is remarkably still competing today, 13 years on from his final collision with ‘The Maine-iac’.
Andrei Arlovski nearly evened the score with Tim Sylvia before the fight was declared a no contest
Andrei Arlovski and Tim Sylvia first faced off inside the Octagon at UFC 51 where after dropping his opponent, ‘The Pit Bull’ secured a quick submission to win the interim heavyweight title.
They met again the following year where this time, Sylvia challenged his former foe for the undisputed title and secured his revenge, bouncing back from a knockdown to stop his opponent in the first round.
His first title defense saw them go head-to-head for the third and final time in the UFC, where the defending champion once again got the better of Arlovski, this time via the scorecards.
| Andrei Arlovski vs Tim Sylvia in the UFC | Result |
| UFC 51 – 2005 | Arlovski via submission in round 1 |
| UFC 59 – 2006 | Sylvia via TKO in round 1 |
| UFC 61 – 2006 | Sylvia via unanimous decision |
Both men would part ways with the promotion shortly after which eventually led them both to revisiting their feud at just the fifth event hosted by ONE Championship.
‘ONE Fighting Championship: “Pride of a Nation’ took place in the Philippines on August 31 of 2012 where it looked like Arlovski had finally evened the score.
At the time, ONE allowed fighters to use soccer kicks once the referee had signaled for an ‘open attack’.
After Arlovski appeared to stop his rival in the second round, it was revealed that the referee hadn’t allowed the soccer kicks and when Sylvia admitted that he couldn’t properly see due to the damage that he had taken, the fight was declared a no contest.
Both men agreed to take part in a rematch under the ONE banner but it never took place.
ONE Championship changed their ruleset as a result of the Andrei Arlovski vs Tim Sylvia controversy
It’s still a factor in modern day MMA that fighters can get caught up in the heat of the moment, hence why there is a referee to cause breaks in the action or penalize fouls.
Having certain strikes only be eligible once an official gives the signal was a system that was destined to cause issues for ONE Championship, and they acknowledged that after Andrei Arlovski versus Tim Sylvia ended in a no contest.
The promotion announced following this matchup that for their next event, they would be implementing the PRIDE ruleset, meaning that soccer kicks would be legal at all times, though this didn’t reverse the result of the no contest.
ONE Championship ended up banning soccer kicks completely in 2016, though, unlike the UFC ruleset, you can still land knees to the head of a downed opponent.