Arlovski vs Mir: Old Dogs, New Tricks?

This weekend's meeting between Andrei Arlovski and Frank Mir sums up everything which is awful about the heavyweight division, and everything that fans love about it. Arlovksi and Mir are both, in combat sports terms, fossils. They both won the UFC heavyweight title back in 2005, when every other quality fighter over two hundred pounds was being offered better money in PRIDE FC, and yet a decade later the two are fighting for the very real possibility of a title shot.

On the one hand, where is all the new talent at heavyweight? That the so-called up-and-comers can't get past these two old timers is a sad indictment of the quality of heavyweights across the board. On the other hand, everyone loves to see an old dog make one last run at the championship—and in the heavyweight division, where hideous swinging with huge, ham-sized fists is par for the course, anyone is a couple of decent punches away from a fairy tale ending.

While it is almost unthinkable that a top fighter from 2005 would have a return to contention like theirs, in any other division, I cannot fault Arlovski and Mir for how they have endured the rough times and pushed through. Both men have done wonderfully in creating what appears to be a career renaissance through their very different approaches to their fighting careers.

Frank Mir has dramatically improved his boxing technique and his eye for openings. Where many were pretending he was looking like a polished product on the feet after knocking out Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira in 2008—wherein Mir famously went almost exclusively to the same left straight, right uppercut pairing dozens of times in succession against the static Brazilian—what we see in Mir now is truly an improvement in striking science. It is so refreshing to see a big man actually get into the nitty gritty of technical striking and, while he has been hittable and at times downright wild, Mir's moments of technical precision have undoubtedly been the difference in his last couple of fights.

For a start, hooking off of the jab against Bigfoot Silva was sublime. It's no secret that this technique is underused, but really it should be considered the yin to the yang of the one-two. Think of how routinely fighters throw out one-twos, and then think how unpredictable they'd be if they threw a lead hook off of the jab even one time out of every four times they wanted to use the one-two. It's a more complex action mechanically, and it doesn't feel like a big power pairing, but the finesse is enough to catch and hurt almost any mixed martial artist. With that knockout, Mir brought a touch of boxing class to the heavyweight division, even if it was only momentary.

Mir's bout with Todd Duffee was an appallingly sloppy slug-fest, and Mir got hit clean far too much, but again it was a moment of crisper boxing amid a barnburner which turned out Duffee's lights and snatched the victory for the former heavyweight champion. While Duffee was swinging punches from literally behind his back, Mir tightened up on a riposte counter straight after a parry and cut his way inside the wide form of the younger fighter.

Mir might still have the issues he has always had with wrestling and with top control—he lacks reliable takedowns and while his submissions have always been a threat, he fares poorly in grinding battles of positional control on the ground. When Mir cannot submit opponents from his guard, he often gets trapped underneath—two of the elements of that bottom game holy trinity (submit, sweep, stand up) have historically always been missing. Furthermore, even Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira was able to rough Mir up with dirty boxing along the fence, well into the twilight of his career. It's unlikely that Arlovski will test these facets of Mir's game (though he showed himself to be willing to stall out Brendan Schaub in the clinch along the fence), but any improvement in those areas would be a sign of a genuine career rebirth rather than simply a couple of nice knockouts in a division which is saturated with them.

Where Mir has benefited enormously from reflection on his technique and solid efforts to improve his boxing form and strategy, Arlovski has benefited from going the other way. The notion that Andrei Arlovski has a weak chin might be accurate, but in the heavyweight division anyone can get knocked out. What Arlovski's seven KO losses and the plethora of occasions on which he has been wobbled by stiff blows really show is that he gets hit way too much. And oddly, the more Arlovski focused on becoming a technical boxer, the more he got knocked out.

Arlovski's work with Freddie Roach was highly publicized, and Roach has produced more great fighters than you can shake a stick at, but Arlovski was never built to jab and move. Arlovski's shakey chin, and complete lack of confidence in it, meant that when he tried to get on his bike and peck at his man with jabs and inside low kicks, his opponents just walked through them and knocked him out anyway.

Sergei Kharitonov showed it excellently, and Brett Rogers' successful bum rush really underlines it. If there's no reason to be worried about walking in, and you know the guy's chin is suspect, a bum rush is absolutely a reasonable thing to attempt.

What seems to have heralded Arlovski's return to form is a willingness to throw the right hand with reckless abandon. Arlovski is the epitome of a glass cannon, as questionable as his jawline is, his right hand might be the hardest to ever be thrown in the octagon. You will notice that Arlovski's combination work is, quite like Kharitanov, almost all done off of one side. His pairing of the right uppercut and right straight and vice versa has been a key to success throughout his career.

Against Bigfoot it was the right straight and right hook.

Against Travis Browne, he was even throwing right back hands to recover from missed swings, instead of the usual left hook. Arlovski hurt Browne badly on two occasions with these back hands or 'tattoos' as Jack Dempsey would call them.

Every time Browne stood still, a right hand came at him. Every time he threw something at Arlovski, a right hand came flying back. The counters that Arlovski showed—the catch and pitch, the inside parry of the jab to the inside right—were slick, true, but he wasn't pretending to box, he was hunting the knockout.

And that's what makes this match interesting. If Arlovski keeps the aggression that won him his previous two bouts, will he play into Mir's counter game, or will he be able to knock out the hittable American before that becomes and issue? If Arlovski tries to stall out along the fence as he did against Brendan Schaub, does Mir have the answers which were absent against Nogueira?

The heavyweight division might be a shambles, but at least this match up combines two fairy tale narratives with a genuinely intriguing stylistic clash. Who knows, maybe the winner gets to fight Fedor.

Pick up Jack's new kindle book, Finding the Art, or find him at his blog, Fights Gone By.