Boxing guru Freddie Roach has been an outspoken ally of his student Andrei Arlovski's striking abilities, and following Arlovski's loss to Fedor Emelianenko at Affliction's "Day of Reckoning," chalked the experience up to youthful inexperience.
"He made a young man's mistake," Roach told MMAInsider backstage. "It was too easy for him. He was winning the fight handily I thought, controlling the fight like we planned. He got a little cocky, and he tried the flying knee from too far away, no setup, and he paid for it."
While it seemed Arlovski may have thrown the high-risk strike because he thought Emelianenko was hurt, Roach disagreed.
"No, not at that moment," he continued. "But Fedor swings hard, that's his thing. He probably had his eyes closed, but he just got lucky, I think. If we had followed a more disciplined fight, and kept to the game plan, I think it was going to be easy."
Roach was unsure about what came next for Arlovski, but said he would continue to work with his student.
21 comments:
I love how everyone tries to make out that their fighter was '...winning the fight until they made a mistake...' Can someone just give Fedor his props and say that he IS for real and right now at this point in his career, he CAN beat anyone put in front of him. For Roach to say Fedor 'got lucky' with that punch, he obviously has never seen Fedor fight. He throws punches with bad intentions. He means for them to connect. So by Roaches logic every punch Fedor has ever thrown that has ultimatly knocked out his opponent has been a lucky one. Arlovski was out-classed, out-punched and out-smarted by a much better fighter. Period. Fedor is unbeatable right now. Mir can't beat him, Lesnar can't beat him and Coutour can't beat him. At this point, I'm not sure a rocket-launcher could beat him.
The UFC almost has it all when it comes to MMA except for the big show. It will always haunt Dana that he never landed the top Heavyweight to come through MMA. If Fedor retires or gets old and the UFC never promotes him, they will never be the ULTIMATE Fighting Championship!!!!
its same too say that hong man choi was beating fedor until he got caught inn an armbar..hehe. its the same thing..its so dum too make so many exuses, when your fighting a man who has so many skills like fedor..if you make a mistake, he will take advantage of that.. and that what he just did.
well he was winning the fight but one careless mistake cost him, congrats to fedor for taking advantage, still dont think he's as great as some of you think he is, his first fight against real competition in a few years and he didnt look that great, would love to see them fight again because i think arlovski can beat him
To: January 25, 2009 6:27 PM
You're crazy dude. He's beat the best. His last two fights were first round stoppages of fairly recent UFC HW Champions. (In fact, they were the HW Champs at the time of the great Pride vs UFC debates. Guess the Pride guys were right that time.)
Roach is a homer, that's all. It's tough to admit your side isn't as good as the other. I don't think we should judge him an idiot by his obviously idiotic statement on it being a lucky punch.
We don't think Fedor is unbeatable. We simply think he's the closest thing to it in MMA.
it sure didnt take long for Arlovski to make a mistake.
Fedor is for real, and while Arlovski may have been ahead in terms of points he made a mistake and got caught. One of the reasons that Fedor is so good is that he does not make very many of them. However, Arlovski must be given credit, he through some excellent combo's and came in very aggressive. In the end the better fighter is the one who is still standing when the fight is over, and as of yesterday that man is Fedor.
I get so annoyed with all the Fedor haters saying well the first real competition and he didnt look good. Really knocking out your opponent in 3:14 is not immpressive? So what your saying is if he gets touched at all then he is not that good, by that theory then no fighter in MMA is good including Anderson Silva who got controlled for 1 whole round vs Henderson, at least Fedor ended his fight prior to the end of the first.
It was a mistake, but against 85% of fighters Arlovski connects with the knee and the other fighter is knocked out. Fedor placed that shot directly on the button and Arlovski was out cold.
Impressive.
Let's face the facts. Like him or not.. Fedor is good.
The real question is: Will the UFC finally just pay the guy and get him in the UFC? Then again, I am not sure that Fedor has much interest at the moment in fighting the 2 UFC champs ... Brock or Mir. Does anyone think they would fair any better?
Well, it seems that this is really Fedor's style--survive until his opponent makes a mistake, and then capitalize on that mistake. Of course, sometimes he just dominates. But if you watch a lot of his fights, it seems like he is losing until his opponent makes a mistake and then in a split second, it's all over.
That's really what makes him the best. He has been losing a lot of times but he never lost. You just can's put him down. And he knows how to finish someone once they make even a split second mistake.
Arlovski is a good fighter with quick hands. His problem is his chin is made of rock solid glass. Tim Silva proved that when he knocked him out in the UFC. When Arlovski is on he's pretty damn good, But the moment his chin gets tapped he folds like an accordian.
Every great fighter eventually loses. This was not that day for Fedor. He is truly the best fighter in his weight class and he is the best ambassador for the sport....
Fedor has secured himself as the greatest MMA fighter of all time up until now.
I hope he capitalizes economically on it. I actually dont want to see him on the UFC, I want Affliction to prosper and be another great source of MMA entertainment for all of us
Tim Syliva didn't knock arlovski out, tim's fat ass fell on him watch the fight again
Sheesh, I won't say Fedor was lucky because that was a planned strike. That man is a bad, bad man. But I don't see how everyone is saying Arvloski wasn't doing well before he decided to go for the flying knee. Seriously, he was landing his punches. I think if he did stick to the game plan, he might of came out the first round winning the first round, butttttt that didn't happen because he got knocked out like he stole Fedor's money! He's a true predator, waits for the opponent to make the mistake then goes for the kill!
You never know, Fedor might be intrigued enough about Brock's punk ass (if he keeps winning, which I doubt) and come over to fight. He's already expressed that he's a bit fascinated about the guy. Doubt it, but you never know.
In the same way then, Mir isn't that good because Lesner murdered him until he made a mistake and Mir took advantage of it.
Fedor will never get hailed as anything by some people because they just don't understand the fights. Fedor was until recently world sambo champion. Sambo, which is the art of disarming your opponents means that he is trained to fight from the disadvantage and remain calm until his opportunity arises. That's what he does. He doesn't panic, the man is the perfect example of consistancy. He does what he has to do. No more, no less.
He is a great of MMA.
Roach is an idiot. Arlovski was winning the standup and jumped the gun when he thought he had Fedor.
Fedor punches from his hips (power) and caught Arlovski clean on the chin.
Fedor is MMA. Not Griffen/Lesnar.
I think the only thing that could stop Fedor is himself when he becomes too Hollywood with his acting and isnt as prepared for a match.
Fedor won we all see that but if he beats Josh then and only then will he be the best in the world becasue by taking out josh you have now taken out the top 5 hw in the world weather it was in pride or now if he beat Josh then Fedor is pound for pound the best mma fight in the world. Now is that going to happen I don't know I would love to see josh do it but we will see Fedor is weak to wrestling but is great on the ground they both have good standup but Josh will have a reach and he will have to use it if he is going to make it out alive
WTF dude what was that!!! Ok, no more smoking weed and writing in a blog at the sametime. Thanks
Wow i didnt know Roach was such a sore loser. Fedor turned Arlovskis lights out. He waited for the kill thats why he is the best MMA fighter ever.
Listen to watch Roach says at 1:35 about a Knee lol
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbS5kjcfTkw
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