Andrei Arlovski vs Tim Sylvia 4 Breakdown

Andrei Arlovski (17-9) vs Tim Sylvia (31-7) is an interesting match up to anyone who has been following MMA for more than the last three or four years.  They are two of the top heavyweights the UFC has ever had, and even though they are not at their peaks anymore, they can still be dangerous to anyone.  I really like what ONE FC is doing in Asia.

These fighters have met three times in the past.  The first match easily went to Arlovski when he floored Sylvia and finished him with a leglock.  The second fight looked exactly like the first one, except after dropping Sylvia, Arlovski rushed in to finish with strikes and got caught while being sloppy.  Both of those fights were over very quickly.  The third match went to a decision in a fight that was pretty boring from what I remember.  Neither guy wanted to lose the rubber match and fought very safe.  Sylvia ended up winning the decision (but I remember thinking Arlovski should have won).

This forth fight finds them both in a very different place.  Arlovski has put together a couple of wins, after losing four in a row (all to top heavyweights) and Sylvia has won his last three.  It’s a little hard to tell where they are at right now because their competition hasn’t been the best lately.  Sylvia got KO’d by a couple of guys he should have easily beat and Arlovski has been lacking aggression in his last few fights.

Regardless of Sylvia being 2-1 against Arlovski, I feel Arlovski is the superior fighter.  Arlovski has better stand up and submissions.  His biggest problem is that he doesn’t always defend himself well and his chin is average in a division of hard hitters.  This could be another quick fight if they both come out to make a statement, or a slow fight if they come out not to lose like in the third fight.

I am hoping for an exciting match up and I think that if Arlovski comes out and fights smart he wins this fairly convincingly.  If Arlovski still hasn’t fixed his defense and gets sloppy Sylvia could catch him or if Arlovski comes out and isn’t aggressive at all like in his last couple of fights, Sylvia could use his range to win a decision.  The other thing to take into account is ONE FC uses rules very similar to Pride rules.  If One of these guys drops the other one, I believe they are allowed to use knees or kicks to a grounded opponent.