Looks like former UFC Heavyweight Champion Andrei "The Pitbull" Arlovski is done negotiating and will not re-sign with the UFC. Arlovski is expected to take on Ben Rothwell at Affliction: Banned next month. Arlovski leaves the UFC splitting his last five fights with two losses to Tim Sylvia and wins over Marcio Cruz, Fabricio Werdum and Jake O'Brien. Donald Trump, new part-owner of the Affliction fight brand, will formally announce his involvement with the promotion soon, and is expected to introduce Arlovski as well.
Darn, I enjoyed him as a fighter. The UFC has really been losing out of its HW division, Arlovski, Silvia, Crocop, and Coulture. The only other guys they've lost that were any good off the top of my head were Nick Diaz, and kind of Tito.
looks like the UFC is kinda giving up on the HW division for now. They're assuming affliction will burn itself out and I think hoping elite xc continues to have problems. One of these days they'll be wrong and it will fracture their grip on MMA in north america and ruin the sport by spreading out the top fighters into different orgs even more.
Well I can understand losing Couture, he didn't want to play out his contract and was complaining in the media. As well I understand letting Crocop go, the guy was struggling against UFC guys, I don't know what was wrong with him. I guess just bad matchups. Tim Silvia I don't know why they let him go, he was boring, but he beat some guys, lol but I guess he was a notch below Couture and Big Nog. Arlovski I found exciting, but I guess he lost to Silvia which lessened his value. The funny thing is that Tim Silvia was pretty much winning the entire match until he got submitted.
I think it's a pay issue. Affliction is reportedly handing out big pays for the upcoming fights, 1.5-2 mill to Fedor, 800K to Tim, so I imagine AA must be getting 250-400K to fight Ben Rothwell.. hard to turn that kind of money down, and Dana has said before he won't get into a bidding war for a fighter. I think the UFC believes their brand is more important than any one fighter. so far they've been correct.
