October - 2015
SCRAPP! FIGHT MAGAZINE
30
Once a champ and then seemingly on the scra-
pheap of MMA, yet out of nowhere Arlovski is
back in the picture and on a tear. He’s rattled off
six wins in a row besting a bunch that features
Frank Mir, Travis Browne, and Antonio Silva.
He’s a destroyer when on his game. Nelson is
definitely going to be fan favorite but he’s way
on the downside of his career having only one
win in his last five. He’d be a superb longshot
bet, and when they fought before in 2008 un-
der the EliteXC banner, Nelson scored a second-
round KO.
Browne is coming off one of the most amazing
knockdown-drag ‘em out rounds in UFC his-
tory but he came out of it on the wrong end
of first-round TKO loss to Andrei Arlovski. He
took the reigning champ the distance in 2014,
and boasts wins over Josh Barnett and Alistair
Overeem in another first-round barnburner. Mir
is yet another former champ, and another fight-
er on somewhat of a resurgence with 2015 wins
over Antonio Silva and Todd Duffee. If in shape
and motivated, Mir is a staggering talent with
exceptional jiu-jitsu and vastly improved striking.
Rothwell could be the most appealing dark-
horse to win the whole thing. He hasn’t fought
much in recent times but put it on Matt Mitri-
one back in June and seemed re-ignited with a
new persona that illustrated a mean streak. He
has some good wins but has lost to Mark Hunt,
Cain Velasquez and Andrei Arlovski. Overeem’s
gas tank is always a huge question but he has
managed wins in three of his last four, two of
which were 15-minute verdicts. He has bested
Roy Nelson and Frank Mir but the biggest of
his more-recent highlight wins was the MMA
career-ending blitzkrieg he put on Brock Lesnar.
Hunt is, without a doubt, the most exceptional
all-out brawler of the elite group. That’s a good
thing, and a bad thing. When he clashed with
Barnett in 2006, Hunt was tapped out via kimu-
ra in just over two minutes. There are several big
ifs in this fight, the two most prominent being
if massive puncher Hunt catches Barnett on the
chin in the opening moments, and if uber-skilled
grappling master Barnett can get ahold of Hunt
fast. Either way, it’s over very early. Both are
longtime fan favorites but well on the downside
of their careers by a long ways.
A couple of very big hiccups
come up with a tournament
like this especially the very real
possibility of long (upwards of
six months) medical suspension
for a fighter after a first-round
bout.
Alternates would also have to
be at the ready if a fighter is out
longer than six months. Candi-
dates might include Mirko Cro
Cop, Brendan Schaub, Todd
Duffee, and Anthony Hamil-
ton. The UFC also could bolster
that cast by signing free agents
or other promotions’ top tal-
ents such as Vitaly Minakov,
Damian Grabowski and Blagoy
Ivanov.
#5 Andrei Arlovski (25-10-1) vs. #12 Roy Nelson (20-11)
#6 Travis Browne (17-3-1) vs. #11 Frank Mir (18-10)
#7 Ben Rothwell (35-9) vs. #10 Alistair Overeem (39-14-1)
#8 Mark Hunt (10-10-1) vs. #9 Josh Barnett (33-7)
