“We were just talking about Arlovski. We want to sign him. It’s our intention to sign him. But I don’t know. We’re, well, I don’t know. We want to. Whether we will or not, I have no idea. We like Andrei and I know the fans like Andrei. I hope we can do something.”
– UFC President Dana White provides the latest update via Yahoo!Sports.com on the status of former heavyweight champion, Andrei Arlovski. “The Pitbull” is currently a free agent, but it has been reported that the UFC currently holds the first right of refusal on any offers that he receives from other promotions. That might not mean much with MMA upstarts like Affliction throwing around fight purses in excess of $1 million to big name fighters. In fact, there’s a rumor floating around that Arlovski and Ben Rothwell could mix it up on the debut show slated for July 19. That’s just a big bad rumor for now … time will tell.
101 Comments »
Just Sign him Dana !!!
dana is a prick, he treats him like shit and when arlovski contract is going to run out, the prick releises that fans love watching arlovski fight, now he doesnt know what to do.
VM’s TRANSLATION: “Andrei Alovski is gone. I offered him a small amount of money, but he wants to get paid a big amount of money. This is the first of many stars that I will not pay big bucks to, and they will probably all leave and go to other crappy organizationss. The UFC is bigger than MMA”
(to avoid confusion, I do not think the UFC is bigger than MMA, I am saying that that is how Dana feels)
well put Mike, I’m so disgusted, I don’t have anything else to say
LOL, yup well put. Alovski is doing the wise thing by not putting down the UFC or White, more or less how Silvia handled it.
I think AA vs. BigBen would be a fantastic match.
The UFC may be the “A” league but if Dream and others keep up the good matches it’ll be better for the fans in the long run.
If there is real money out there for the top shelf fighters it’ll keep the incentive in place for people to try for the real purses - and be better for we the fans
Andre is GONE!!!! and I am happy that he is leaving. They had plennty of opportunities to book fights for Arlovski against:
Big Nog
Mir
Vera
Kongo
Hearing
Gonzaga
But they didnt, they let him waste away on the undercard against a bum who was released form the UFC after the fight. I am happy that Arlovski is leaving because Affliction seems like they know what to do with him to please the fans.
Rothwell might be exactly what Arlovski needs, a mean S.O.B, who is a dangerous striker and is going to Attack Andre and push the pace. Rothwell will give Arlovski 2 choices…sink or swim. Andre can either fight like the Pitbull or get KTFO…either way it will be a good test to see if we will ever see the pitbull of old again!
agree,
Andre is gone!
Dana White and Zuffa need to rethink about their strategy. Yes, the UFC is the place to be right now, but you can’t keep doing this. It will catchup to you sooner or later.
A mind is a terrible thing to waste….Arlovski is another.
Dana is slowly turning the UFC in garbage. By not signing fan favs like Arlovski and allowing second tier fighters to headline shows (Griffin, Machida, Aves)Im comfortable saying that few people will pay 50 bucks to watch Hughes/Aves and Bisping/Day. They are giving Bisping such a huge push, they robbed poor Matt Hamill of his victory over Bisping because hes more marketable and hes an average fighter. How does Griffin get a title shot when hes lost to Tito and Jardine? I realize he beat Rua but that one win to 2 losses. The undercard on that PPV features Patrick Cote v. Ricardo Almeida……making my point for me.
WHAAAAT?? Cote/Almeida is a prelim????
No it’s not. That dude doesn’t know what he is talking about. Right now it is the fight before the main event.
Thank you.
Dana is turning the UFC into a showcase for second-tier no names. I feel safe in saying that no one is going to pay 50 bucks to watch Hughes/Alves, Bisping/Day. It sickens me how much the UFC is pushing BIsping, they stole an obvious victory from Hamill over him becuse BIsping is more marketable. I like Griffin but how is he getting a title shot? hes 1-2 over his last 3 meaningful fights. The arguement could be made for Jardine…Hes beaten Liddell and Forrest while losing to Alexander. The undercard on the Rampage/GRiffin show is horrible as well..Patrick Cote v. Ricardo Almedia would have been a dark match 3 years ago.
Comments like this are so frustrating. The UK card is in the mess it’s in because of injuries. No one was complaining about the original Liddel/Rua main event. Bisbing was added only after Liddel was injured and taken off the card. Huges/Alves was welcomed by the most fans, even the hardcore, and I find it difficult to blame Dana White for the fact that Leben had some personal troubles and couldn’t fight. Even the addition of Day to replace Leben was welcomed on the message boards considering the situation. Sorry cRich, Dana White isn’t “turning the UFC into a showcase for second-tier no names” or “turning the UFC into garbage” that’s just poor thinking skills on your part. Aside from the heavyweights (who are always going to be difficult to manage due to their scarcity and popularity), the UFC is the the place to be for fighters in all other weight classes.
Oh and the conspiracy theory concerning Bisbing/Hamill is laughable. Are you saying that that match was fixed? By who? Oh yeah, big bad Dana White. It was a tight match and a tough decision, let’s move on.
I AM
I hope Andrei is back in the UFC
The fans want him back in the UFC, Dana wants him back, Andrei said before he liked UFC, so why isn’t he signed yet?
the UFC needs the Pitbull more than he needs the UFC. after getting two wins in a row he should still be in the UFC.he is still youg enough to get his old form back.he is a top 5 Hwt right now in the UFC & top 10 in the world.
I disagree with you that the UFC needs him more than he needs the UFC, but I really hope they resign him, I would love to see him fight Vera, Nog and Kongo.
actually he has won past 3 fights.
its actually three wins in a row
Yeah that’s why you didn’t even put him on the telivised portion of the card.
I doubt he’ll sign with UFC right now, unless he’s unsure of the future of Affliction or any other promotion for that matter. However, since Mir and Nog are already tapped for TUF 8, and fighting in December, I sure as hell hope the UFC gives Andrei the winner. Or something along the lines of Brandon Vera if he beats Werdum or gets a title shot if he can get past somebody like Heath Herring.
With the HW division so thin, it’s a must that the UFC signs Arlovski. But then again Arlovski needs to throw his bricks in the ocean and become the PitBull again.
that’s who i am talking about the PITBULL not Andrei that looked tenative against the Maineiac the 3rd time & the dec. win against Werdum. that’s what i meant when i said the UFC needs him more than needs them.
but he will probably take the money from Affliction,i know i probably would.
I almost don’t want him to stay in the UFC, just think the bigger more interesting fights for him are elsewhere.
Its amazing how lopsided the UFC is… you take the W/W division, its got almost all the top ten in the world… then look at the heavyweight divsion which is extreamly thin with basically Nog and Werdum then thats it.
Stupid state of affairs.
It seems like he’s been on the backburner so long, it’s hard to believe Dana really has an interest in signing him. You would think it would have happened by now if that was the case. Oh well, you snooze you lose.
AA doesn’t want any part of Nog and he knows it. He’ll only fight him if its for a big ass payday like when Tito fought Chuck the 2nd time.
Are you high, Arlovski would smoke Nog. Nothing against Nog but Andrei is lighting fast with ko power and would not let Nog off the hook like Herring did.AA should get paid becuz he very marketable and sells tickets and ppv’s
Its been confirmed today by Ben Rothwell himself on the Sherdog forums
Andrei Arlovsky Vs, Ben Rothwell, Affliction July 19th
WRONG
I want the ufc to sign him, however, you CAN’T pay him $1million. He is just not that big of a draw, you give him that you gotta give Quinton,Anderson, Chuck, hell even Forrest way more than that because all those guys are better draws. I want Arlovski to stay in the octagon but if Affliction wants to give Andrei 1mil, it just doesn’t make sense for the ufc to sign him.
Well that made no sense atall, I am not a huge Arlovski fan but he is a WAAAAY bigger draw forrest griffin and still has a huge following. Rampage has a good sized fan base as well and it’s still growing but Andrei still rocks the house ( I have been to his last 3 fights) as well as rampages. Chuck is in a league of his own he brings the roof down and has maybe the largest fan base in mma. Anderson Silva as well has alot of fans but forrest just has the i’m a nice guy so we will cheer for you and hope he doesn’t get ktfo type fans which don’t equal near as many as Arlovski.
I’ll tell you what… if Arlovski fights Rothwell on that affliction card… it could seriously be one of the best fight cards ever… the company will be broke afterward, but what a card.
The Affliction card is very stacked right now if the Arlovski and Rothwell fight. Imo though affliction is setting itself up for a big downfall. Talent wise so far they have some players, but what are they going to do for their encore have the same fights as their first card ??? Lets see how long Affliction lasts…
i whould like to see him fight heath hearing eddie sancez or most of all justin mucully just all fight id like to see i think he could win them all
but if he goes to afliction he could fight fedor but then i whould be buying ufc and affliction cards
damn it dana stop being cheap and sign AA!!!! the heavyweight division needs some good fighters.
they want to sign him, but at a certain price. A.A. is stuck between a sure thing in the ufc or a huge maybee in affliction.
Dana has had to many chances. Please leave Andrei!
With Arlovski as part of Affliction events it shows some great depth. Bring over Hunt, CroCop, Randy as well and we have the whole HW crew (apart from Mir and BigNog).
In a few months, bring Tito across they can start really working through the lighter divisions.
If arlovsi leaves then I think Dana should seriously consider having somone else be in charge of the contract negotiations with the fighters. If all these guys end fighting in Affliction we will have a nice little battle between the two promotions unless UFC gets the money to buy them out like what they did with pride.
i don’t get it ufc wants him, dana wants him , fans want him, he wants to stay in the ufc. so what the hell is making it not happen, sign him already he is a fan favorite
imagine Affliction or any other promotion having Fedor, Randy, Arlovski, Tito, Barnett, Rizzo, Sobral, lindland…. the list goes on and on…
No it doesn’t. That’s the entire list.
That’s funnily true.
He can cross out Rizzo, too b/c he is a has been.
But am not opposing the growth of other organizations. As we all know, competition is better for customers.
Affliction does have quite a roster but I just don’t see them putting on more than 3 shows. With the amount of money being doled out to the fighters there is no way in hell that they will be able to stay profitable. M-1 couldn’t do it, GoldenBoy has dissolved its relationship with this organization and HDNet Fights kicked Affliction out of the Delta Center for their cross promotion together.
As far as Arlovski signing with the UFC, the only reason Dana will resign Andre is out of spite! Dana’s thinking is like a crazy ex, I don’t want him but I dont want you to have him either. Too much drama in the last year, just sign these guys and let the fighters take care of it in the Octagon!
Yeah its a bit like they are putting all their eggs in the one basket for one super card.
They should split this event into 2 i think, they will blow their wad too early otherwise.
MANIA, does Affoiction have a website that could confirm is AA is fightin Rothwell?? just lookin for some more info on the subject
i know you asked mania and not me, but i have looked everywhere for an official affliction and adreneline website and have come up empty.
Dana has done good getting rid of some crap fighters lately but he is good enough to stay.
They gave him star status, now they don’t want to anymore. But AA is used to it, and he deserves it. They are obviously at an impass, and Dana saying he has ‘no idea’ is an embarassing thing for him. He should have an idea, it’s his damn job. Admitting to that is a joke. Unfortunately it is time for AA to move on, and has been for quite some time.
Dana is 100% lying.
I was at UFC 82, he was an undercard as you all know… but what you may not know… is that after the fight, when everyone does the Mickey’s replay.. They shut the lights off on him!!!! he was about to do it… I think even rogan was in the cage.. and the lights went out…. the only other fighter that this happened to was Okami, well ‘cos he doesn’t speak english, and he basically left right away….
Boo! Dana…. and the crazy thing is that AA never once talked about how crapily the UFC treated him!
i want a company to come out and give each fighter a percentage revenue. i mean how much does the ufc make off of each liddell event, give chuck 5% of each fight he makes and thats more then he is making now? right? or am i wrong…..
he is the best HW in the ufc by far.
After Big Nog of course
NOT
I thought Andrei was going to fight for Affliction, can anyone confirm this?
interesting ufc needs him back cause the heavyweight division is weak sauce
What Dana needs to do is quit talking about how bad he wants to resign him and make him an offer similar to the offers hes given to the some of the guys that have come to the UFC from Pride. Arlovski has been around a while, the fans love him, and he will add to a very weak Heavyweight division.
I’m not understanding what all the fuss is about with Arlovski. I know the HW division is weak in the UFC, but Arlovski is not an exciting fighter anymore. He has had one exciting fight since AA vs. Sylvia 2, back in April of 2006. And that was aginst a Jake Obrien. As much as I cant stand Dana, he shouldn’t have to pay a guy like Arlovski a ton of money, because he isnt worth it. Arlovski’s dominance of old was simply because the UFC had a VERY thin HW division. He can’t cut it with the likes of Fedor, Nog, or Cro-Cop. Never could.
THANK YOU! AA hasn’t had a worthwhile fight in 2-3 years. Granted, those weren’t all enirely his fault (Werdum in particular) but he isn’t worth a huge signing bonus right now. Good for him getting a nice payday from Affliction though.
you lost me at cro-cop. your’e just a hater
I’m not a hater, I’m an educated fan. I was a fan of Arlovski at one time, but now he’s boring. The biggest name AA has ever KO’d is Cabbage. Cro-Cop has fought a who’s-who of MMA stars, and knocked most of them out. Fedor, Wanderlei (twice and KO’d him once), Big Nog, Mark Hunt, Randleman, Aleksander Emelianenko, Herring, Barnett, Coleman, and so on. Check your history books on something OTHER than a couple UFC fights before you run your mouth about a fighter. Cro-Cop is way better than these new UFC fans give him credit for. P.S. He DID take at least 2 big knees to the balls when he fought Kongo.
your about the most biased ex-pride fan i have evere seen. and i do mean ex cuz there is no more pride. get over it! you were never an arlovski fan, so dont even try to claim that. ive seen all these fights slappy, if c.c is so much better than all the “new” fans think, why did he step down from the ufc to lesser competiton in dream. i bet you sht your panties when gonzaga koed him w/ the head-kick. i dont need to check my history, you need to get caught up on current events and quit living in the past!
“and knocked most of them out”
Not exactly…
Fedor => loss
Wanderlei=> 1 big win, 1 draw. Silva walks around at 205. May be considering fighting at middleweight.
Big Nog => loss
Mark Hunt => loss, employs Kalib Starnesian defense
Randleman => 1 win, 1 loss
Aleksander Emelianenko => 1 win
Herring => Who is Herring again?
Barnett => 2 wins - Barnett was at an endurance disadvantage in second fight
Coleman => 1 win 2005 version of Coleman, not 2000
Ok so now you’re a mind reader too? Being a crocop fan makes me an ex-pride fan? I’m an analytical fight fan d*ckhead, and I was in fact an Arlovski fan. You’re gonna call me a hater just because I’m stating a fact, that AA hasnt had an exciting fight in a VERY long time. He was never the same after getting KO’d by Sylvia, even though he had several chances. And as far as being a fan of anyone, I want to see a good fight. I was neutral in the fight with Gonzaga, and I usually favor grapplers anyway, having trained in BJJ and wrestling. I did jump out of my seat in shock when GG KO’d him, but I sure wasn’t upset by it. You can call CC washed up or whatever, but if he IS a has-been, then AA is a never-was. The simple fact of the matter, is that cro-cops resume, is 20 times more impressive than AA’s. And AA hasn’t fought the caliber of competition that those “ex-Pride” guys have. He doesn’t deserve a ton of money. Now go find someone else to mindf*ck.
OK mmamania reader, I count 6 KO’s in that little list youve got there, and it doesnt include his KO over Vovchanchyn. You made excuses for every one of his opponents losses.
yes i am a mindreader as a matter of fact. i am reading into your mind that you are a little insecure and need to chill out.
ok i will…if thats the best you can do
goodbye then. you lose i win. analize that!
lol…wow
“I count 6 KO’s in that little list youve got there”
That I ain’t my list. My list would include Gabriel Gonzaga and Cheick “No Ground Game” Kongo. I was just using the list that you cherry picked. A list that has Cro Cop went 7-4-1.
“You made excuses for every one of his opponents losses.”
Those weren’t excuses, those were flaws in your list.
I agree to a point. AA has not been the same since the fights with Timmy. AA fought to Timmy’s strengths and that was a huge mistake. The part I don’t agree with is comparing AA to Fedor (has not fought a solid opp. since Lindland and they are not even the same weight class/has never fought in the UFC) and Cro Cop lost two in the octagon. Thus, I don’t think we can say AA can’t cut it with these fighters until he fights them. However, I do agree that Big Nog is too much for AA.
I 100% agree with this comment. I was getting madder and madder reading all the comments making out Arlovski is the greatest HW since time began. In his whole career he has not fought anyone tougher than Sylvia (who he lost to twice) and was being booed out of th ring not so long ago. No way on earth Dana should be held to ransom for a popular but not star performer.
Affliction may pay him 800K like big Timmy, but they could get him for 300K if they wanted. There’s no way Dana’s going to match 300K+. If he did, he’d have to give too many raises across the board. The thing that gets me is that some people don’t understand that we can’t compare this to boxing. In boxing, you see one good fight and the undercards almost always suck. If Dana starts paying the UFC fighters like the top boxers, we would see one good fight and a bunch of crappy undercards, and the undercard guys would get paid less than they are now because the top guys would be making the lion’s share. The UFC has got a system that has worked better than any other prior to it. That’s why the company wants to stay private, so that others can’t copy its winning formula. I would love to see Affliction prosper, but unfortunately they will more than likely tank because it sounds like they are going to pay the fighters so much that they will not be able to bring in enough money to stay afloat. Only time will tell.
AA is gone. No way Dana signs him.
So let me get this straight. Dana is willing to give Brock Lesnar $200k per fight. Now Brock is 1-1 in MMA and has done absolutely nothing within the sport to earn that kind of money. Now we have Arlovski who is a former champion, fan favorite, has never complained about anything even when regulated to the undercard, and is in the top 5 HW’s out there. Dana isn’t willing to compromise it seems and pay him some $$$. AA brought in a lot of cash for the UFC. Before the invention of TUF and MMA was a small blip on the sports landscape AA brought in fans and packed a venue. Dana you should be ashamed of yourself. You aren’t ruining MMA, you are ruining the UFC. MMA will always survive, the UFC maybe not so much.
AA vs. Rothwell has been confirmed by Rothwell.
Can anyone think of a greater fightcard than what Affliction has put up for their debut?
Fedor Emelianenko vs Tim Sylvia (entertaining)
Josh Barnett vs Pedro Rizzo (great matchup!)
Ben Rothwell vs Andre Arlovski (hopefully fireworks)
Aleksander Emelianenko vs Paul Buentello (some serious dmg there)
Matt Lindland vs Fabio Negao (The Law, ’nuff said)
Renato Sobral vs Mike Whitehead (make or break for Sobral)
Savant Young vs Mark Hominick
Brett Cooper vs Mike Pyle
Ray Lamaza vs Justin Levens
JJ Ambrose vs Patrick Speight
Affliction will pay him whatever he wants - say for example, 300k per show - 2 shows in, and Affliction will be bust, given they’ll be paying everyone on their card a high salary.
Andre then moves on somewhere else, say EliteXC - get’s paid the same again - everyone knows the money troubles they’re having - they go bust.
All these fighters going around asking for more cash, are only going to end up in one place at the end - The UFC. They have the stable base, and the company who will be around long after Affliction, AttitudeMMA and the like go bust. Then what are the fighters going to do… it’ll go something like this:
“Please Dana, can I have my old job back, all the other companies can’t afford me anymore - i’m sorry”
There is not one stable company at the moment who can afford to pay all these fighters big bucks over a period of time, outside of the UFC, merely just many upstart companies throwing their money away.
MMA Promotions, and fighters are looking at their situations in the short term - in three/four years time the US there will still have only one big MMA Promotion - The UFC.
Arlovski didn’t look very good in his last fight to me.
alot of guys havent looked so great in their last fights(too mnay to list) but a.a. has won 3 in a row, a irst rnd stoppage of cruz(who just beat mir before that, and mir is getting a title shot, a ud against werdum, who is on the short list to a title shot and 2nd rnd tko of obrien who previously had beaten herring who just beat kongo. i know comparing fighter a to beating fighter b is bullshit, but he keeps beating the fighters they put in front of him. none of those fighters were looking to win against andrei, just to survive. he hasnt looked the same as of late cuz of the guys he fought, so its not all on him. stop hating on the dude (no one in particular, just everyone who is dissing him)
I reckon he’s gone. More money elsewhere, plus Timmy isn’t in the UFC anymore and there’s a rematch he definitely wants. Plus Couture, Fedor, Aleks, Barnett, Hunt and Ricco are all out there. Hell even Sergei, Crocop and Jerome Le Banner. They’d all be good interesting matchups. I wouldn’t mind seeing him pummel Overeem for the Strikeforce heavyweight belt and then look to fight Tim or Fedor to unify the belts or something like that.
In short there’s more money elsewhere at the moment and there’s plenty of good matchups. I’m not worried where the heavyweights go. I kind of feel bad for Nogueira though. He’s getting screwed out of any good opposition.
Can everyone quit complaining about Dana. You may not like everything that goes on in the UFC, so what? You wouldn’t like none of the other orgs either if they were as transparent. This is a BUSINESS first. SO, you try to keep cost low (marketing is not free). When revenue is up they give more in bonuses and so on. Give it a rest, please. Pride, EliteXC or no other org have gave us so much non stop mma. But we never appreciate things until they are gone.
it just like the NHL with a salary cap.when team A is trying to resign one of their stars and team B offers more than team A believes the player is worth team B gets the player but overpays. Dana can’t just give Arlovski more than he thinks he’s worth.so let Affliction overpay fighters and see where they are next year.
Right. They should be able to afford it when they charge 60 bucks for a friggin T-shirt
Everyone should ask themselves what you pay your favorite fighters. And after you complete your list you will hopefully realize that you can’t pay everyone 500k per fight guranteed. Im not sure what went on during the negotiations but these guys must also take into consideration that if they leave for a bigger purse in their next fight (with a different org), where does that leave the rest of their career….
this is probably the only hold-up andrei is having right now. even if he and tim only get to fight one fight for a mil and this org folds after, they will still have some leverage w/ the ufc because of elite xc. not as much but some. a.a. could have wanted a title shot alos to re-sign and didn’t get it so who knows? it will probably take another 2weeks before all the dust clears (wich seems like an eternity).
Dana needs a strong glass of whiskey and a zany bar, he’s in denial.
Dana needs a stiff drink of whiskey, and some of that shit Chuck be taking for early morning interviews.
I truly hope Elite XC starts picking up some of these good fighters and becomes the premier league. Don’t get me wrong: I love the UFC. But to me, its always been obvious that Dana White needs to step aside before it can REALLY ta