Andrei Arlovski: 'Overeem and I Will Never Be Friends'

Andrei Arlovski: 'Overeem and I Will Never Be Friends'

There is no love lost between Andrei Arlovski and Alistair Overeem. "The Pit Bull" shares his side with Peter Carroll.

May 7, 2016 by FloCombat Staff
Andrei Arlovski: 'Overeem and I Will Never Be Friends'
By Peter Carroll

Andrei Arlovski wouldn’t be known as the most jovial man in the MMA universe, but this week in Rotterdam the former UFC champion definitely has a chip on his shoulder.

The fact that Alistair Overeem, another man who began training in the Albuquerque gym roughly two years ago, asked for a meeting with him hasn’t sat well with the Belarusian. Having moved over to Jackson-Winkeljohn in 2009, Arlovski has enjoyed a resurgence in his career that has seen him go 4-1 since rejoining the UFC in June 2014.

According to ‘The Pitbull’, he would be an a lot better position had he joined the team earlier.

“I’ve said it before, if I started to train with Jackson and Winkeljohn after the Emelianenko fight or before it, it might be a different story now,” Arlovski said. “I’m in good hands right now. It’s a good team with good coaches. It’s a great place to have my camp and I feel like I have many more years ahead of me.”

Because Overeem allegedly asked for the bout, Arlovski has suggested that the kickboxers calling for the contest led Greg Jackson and John Winkeljohn to choose to corner him on the night. He also revealed that regardless of whether Overeem returns to the gym, the two will never be sparring partners or friends.

“I don’t know what to say. I just got Jackson and Winkeljohn’s word that they are going to stick with me for the rest of my career until it is done. I don’t know, besides them, I have many good coaches over there. I can’t speak for Greg or Wink. It’s totally up to them. I think he is always more than welcome to come to Albuquerque, but we are not going to be sparring partners or friends, for sure.

“Maybe it’s our personalities, maybe he is a nice guy, but for me, we are not going to spar together and we are not going to be friends. We have absolutely no relationship. On Sunday night, it’s going to be straight business.”

Despite the two years they spent under the guidance of the infamous coaching duo, Arlovski stated that he had only sparred Overeem twice. As he pointed out, the circumstances behind their brief exchanges didn’t really allow him to gain any insight into his opponent’s game either.

“We sparred twice,” Arlovski said. “The first time was when he first came to the gym about a year and a half or two years ago. The second time was when he fought Junior Dos Santos. Wink asked me to go in and move around for a couple of rounds with him. That was his last sparring session before his fight. I didn’t go crazy because I didn’t want to cut him and cost him the fight and some money. That sparring session was all about moving around and just touching each other. It was nothing too serious.”

While Arlovski seems to be annoyed by Overeem seemingly demanding to fight him, he is not allowing that to result in an emotional performance when he takes to the Octagon in the Ahoy Rotterdam.

"The Pit Bull" had no problem highlighting the devastating striking skills of his main event counterpart, who won the K-1 Grand Prix in 2010. To add to that, the Eastern European icon underlined that he believes that Overeem is going to come at him straight from the first bell.

“I have to use my game plan,” Arlovski conceded. “I have to be more disciplined and move around a lot. I have to watch out for his kicks, his knees, and his elbows because he has phenomenal kickboxing skills. I have to be smart. I have to be focused because on Sunday night Overeem is going to come at me.

Facing the hometown hero on Sunday, Arlovski believes his second bout with Antonio "Bigfoot" Silva in Brazil will have him prepared for the rapturous reception Overeem is set to receive.

“It's the same situation as when I fought Bigfoot the second time in Brazil. There were ten thousand people there and I think there were only a few people cheering for me and that was fine.”

Arlovski was known for this submission skills when he first emerged on the international scene. Celebrated for his boxing skills in his later career, he is not ruling out taking Overeem down tomorrow night given his stellar striking pedigree.

“We’ll see, we’ll see. There’s always a chance."