thanks to sherdog.com
With little more than a month to go before Affliction's second event, "Day of Reckoning" scheduled for Jan. 24 in Anaheim, Calif., Sherdog.com's Tim Leidecker breaks down the main event for the WAMMA heavyweight championship: No. 1-ranked Fedor Emelianenko vs. No. 3-ranked Andrei Arlovski.
Striking
Arlovski comes from a kickboxing background and always makes an effort to move well technically in his fights. However, with the exception of the overhand right he used to knock out Paul Buentello and Ben Rothwell, the Belarusian does not possess any true "winner" punches.
In addition, he has shown a tendency to lose much of his technique as fights progress into the later rounds (see the third bout in his trilogy with Tim Sylvia, as well as the Pedro Rizzo and Fabricio Werdum fights), as he adopts more of a brawling style. This has cost him on a number of occasions, including his knockout losses to Rizzo, Sylvia and obscure journeyman Viacheslav Datsik. The loss to Datsik in his professional debut earned Arlovski a reputation for having a glass jaw.
Emelianenko, meanwhile, has never been known as a world-class striker but has become feared for his ferocious ground-and-pound. Still, the stocky sambo stylist can more than hold his own against the best strikers in the game. He has outboxed K-1 veterans Gary Goodridge and Mirko Filipovic in the past and has used knockdowns to set up his submissions, most recently against the 6-foot-8 Sylvia at Affliction on July 19.
Though he may lack Arlovski's technical skills, Emelianenko's hand speed and power, especially from short distances and even inside the clinch, should not be underestimated.
Arlovski: 3.5 / 5
Emelianenko: 3 / 5
