Andrei Arlovski

Andrei Arlovski (Андрэй Валер’евіч Арлоўскі, born 4 February 1979) is a Belarusian-American professional mixed martial artist, actor and former UFC Heavyweight Champion.

He currently competes in the Heavyweight division for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and holds the record for most wins (23) in UFC heavyweight history.

Arlovski has also competed for Strikeforce, WSOF, Affliction, EliteXC, ONE FC and M-1 Challenge.

Arlovski was born in Babruisk, Byelorussian SSR, Soviet Union (now Belarus).

When he was younger, bullies often picked on him and beat him up.

In 1994, when he was 14 years old, he had finally had enough and started lifting weights to put on muscle and, he hoped, to help him deal with these bullies.

Arlovski took up martial arts at the age of 16 in sports such as Sambo, Judo and Kickboxing.

Enrolling at the police academy in Minsk, Arlovski combined his interest in a career in law enforcement with his growing martial arts participation by taking up the required police defense course in Sambo and quickly showed himself to be a highly competent Sambo opponent.

In 1999, Arlovski won the European Youth Sambo Championship and the World Youth Championship.

Not long after, Arlovski became the first Master of Sports and then International Master of Sports.

He took a silver medal at the Sambo World Cup and another silver medal at the World Sambo Championship.

Arlovski began taking a greater interest in other martial arts, studying kickboxing and developing his striking skills to complement his Sambo-based grappling abilities.

At the age of 20, Arlovski began his professional MMA career at the Mix Fight M-1 in St Petersburg, Russia on 9 April 1999 facing Viacheslav Datsik.

After a competitive stand up battle, Arlovski would be knocked out with a hard straight, losing his debut.

Not deterred, Arlovski returned in 2000 to M-1 Global at the European Championships, taking the heavyweight crown with a submission victory and a KO victory.

Arlovski made his Ultimate Fighting Championship debut at UFC 28, defeating Aaron Brink by submission.

He was then thrown in against top opposition, losing to future UFC Heavyweight Champion Ricco Rodriguez at UFC 32 and heavyweight contender Pedro Rizzo at UFC 36.

Despite those early defeats, wins over future British Cage Rage Light heavyweight Champion Ian Freeman at UFC 40 and future IFL Light heavyweight Champion Vladimir Matyushenko at UFC 44 propelled Arlovski back into the UFC elite.

In 2004, a motorcycle accident injury suffered by then UFC Heavyweight Champion Frank Mir led to the creation of an interim heavyweight title.

It was decided that the two top heavyweight contenders would meet to declare the interim champion.

Arlovski faced former heavyweight champion, Tim Sylvia.

They were originally supposed to fight at UFC 47, but Sylvia was pulled from the fight due to recurring positive drug tests.

Arlovski ended up facing Wesley Correira, winning the fight via TKO in the second round.

The pairing of Arlovski and Sylvia remained intact and occurred at UFC 51.

In the fight, Arlovski eventually connected with an overhand right and dropped Sylvia.

On the ground, Arlovski followed up with an Achilles lock that forced Sylvia to tap out at 47 seconds of the first round, making Arlovski the new UFC Interim Heavyweight Champion.

Arlovski went on to defend his interim title on 4 June 2005, at UFC 53, against Justin Eilers.

Arlovski won the bout by TKO in the first round.

After the fight, it was revealed that Eilers had suffered extensive injuries, including a badly broken nose, two broken hands and a complete ACL tear.

In October 2005, Arlovski once again defended his title at UFC 55 against top contender Paul Buentello.

Arlovski knocked out Buentello in 15 seconds of the opening round.

On 12 August 2005, the UFC announced that it now recognized Arlovski as the undisputed heavyweight champion, as Frank Mir had not fully rehabilitated from his motorcycle accident.

In a rematch with Tim Sylvia at UFC 59 on 15 April 2006, Arlovski knocked Sylvia down with a right-hand punch early in the first round.

Sylvia was able to protect himself and recovered almost immediately.

While Arlovski tried to finish Sylvia with a right lead, Sylvia countered with a short right uppercut to the chin, knocking Arlovski to the mat.

Sylvia followed up with punches on the ground until referee Herb Dean stopped the match at 2:43 of the first round.

The rubber match between Tim Sylvia and Arlovski took place on 8 July 2006, at UFC 61.

In what turned out to be a 5-round battle of attrition, neither fighter was able to KO the other, or even land any truly significant blows.

In the end, Sylvia won the fight by unanimous decision.

It was later discovered that during the fight, Arlovski had been significantly injured by a checked leg kick sometime in the second round which left him unable to throw kicks of his own or make any takedown attempts.