Is this a dream fight??

Question

Check this out!! What do you think?

http://mmajunkie.com/event/133/affliction-ii.mma

Answer 1

This was THE heavyweight dream fight when UFC's heavyweight division was weaker than it is now and Arlovski was top of the food chain (he was even considered that after his first loss to Tim Sylvia), as was Fedor the obvious top of Pride's heavyweight food chain.

Then Arlovski lost to Sylvia again in a lackluster rubber match.  The fight lost interest of the fans compared to what it was.  Then Arlovski beats Pe De Pano but in the process looks bad by landing tons of punches to the back of Pe De Pano's (Marcio Cruz) head.  The Arlovski went on a big hiatus do to some contract disputing type b.s. and was inactive for a good while.  That made the fans lose even more interest.

Then Arlovski fights Fabricio Werdum in one of the most boring fights ever (despite both are very good).  Fans at this point had no care in the world.  Arlovski's last UFC fight would be against Jake O'Brien and was put on the UNDERCARD of the event it was on.  The UFC tends to do this to guys who they know are going to not resign with them.  It was his last fight after a huge hiatus and it was not even broadcast for anyone to remember his first round TKO over O'Brien.

Then Arlovski fights Big Ben Rothwell.  Rothwell had FINALLY gotten himself in the top 10 rankings by being on a huge win streak.  Not all of his opponents were the kind of guys you need to beat to be top 10, but the win streak was nonetheless impressive.  Arlovski, finally looking back in old form, completely mauls Ben getting all the fans behind him he once had.

So, I think this is still a dream fight, but others may not do to Arlovski 1) losing lots of fans and fan interest between the time he was on top and now and 2) because he has not beat a high caliber (Ben coming from the IFL, is not known to be top tier by many fans) other than the Werdum borefest, since his losses to Sylvia.