UFC:s forne tungviktsmästare Andrei Arlovski är i skrivande stund 40 år gammal och har vunnit fler matcher i UFC:s tungviktsdivision än någon annan. Arlovskis karriär har varit en riktig bergochdalbana, fylld av fenomenala vinster och krossande nederlag. Många fighters i samma situation skulle nog börja tänka på att lägga handskarna på hyllan. Efter vinsten i sin senaste match mot Ben Rothwell under UFC on ESPN 4 så är Arlovski av en helt annan åsikt. Detta via mmajunkie.
“I’m a lucky person, first of all. I have great coaches, I have a great team, a great facility and gym, American Top Team, where there’s a lot of heavyweights. The most important thing for me, my wife, to get to do what I do, my passion, it’s my life. She supports me, she takes care of me and like I said, God willing, I want to fight until four, five years, maybe a little bit more. We’ll see.”
Matchen mot Rothwell var ingen lätt historia och båda kämparna fick ge och ta en hel del smällar innan matchen var över. När vinnaren skulle ropas ut så berättar Arlovski hur nervös han var för utgången. Han fortsätter.
“I still have fire in my eyes, and I want to go, and I’m ready to go, but to be honest with you, I was really scared when we fought three rounds, and I heard that bell, and I said, ‘(Expletive), not again, judges. I was scared. It (expletive) me up a little bit, but coach Mike (Brown) started screaming don’t worry, you won the first two rounds, but Mike says I’m not sure about the third one but looks like you won two. But I was super scared to be honest with you.”
”remind myself what my son told me”
“To be honest with you, I was sure I was going to knock him out at the end of the first or second round, but in the third round I started looking at the clock and was like, ‘What the (expletive).’ I was exhausted. I started to remind myself what my son told me before my fight. I guess it gave me some powers. It gave me some push up, and I just finished the third round.”
”forget about everyone and just do my stuff”
“I just know that I have to improve a lot. I need to train even more. I just need to forget about everything, forget about everyone and just do my stuff.”
