MMAVu

Hey, why not?

Since Fedor is not signed to an exclusive contract with Affliction (I believe only in the United States or North America) this bout is possible.  After all, we just saw one half of Affliction’s former main event Andrei Arlovski suddenly pop up on Elite XC’s Heat card on October 4th, why not Fedor??

Should this fight actually occur however, it would be a swift and sudden end to the hype machine that is Kimbo Slice.  Bam.  Kimbo is not, nor will he ever be ready to take on Fedor.  Kimbo would be an even bigger under dog in this fight than Matt Serra was in his  bout with George St. Pierre.  I know what you’re saying, Serra beat St. Pierre in their first fight…but that’s what the odds are for.  Nine times out of ten, St. Pierre smashes Serra like he did in their second fight.  I’d say Kimbo would be a 20-1 under dog.  But however interesting it is to dream about this, it will 99% never happen.  Lots of odds and numbers in this post…

In a bit of a surprise move (since I didn’t know Arlovski’s contract wasn’t exclusive, and he was very recently tabbed for an Affliction event) former UFC Heavyweight Champion Andrei Arlovski has announced he is taking on the now-defunct IFL Heavyweight Champion, Roy Nelson on EliteXC’s October 4th card on CBS.

This comes after the disappointment of Affliction’s October 11th bout going down the tubes due to slow sales and a “restructuring” of the card.

Elite XC’s head of the Live Fight Division had this to say:

This is yet another testament to EliteXC’s willingness to work with other MMA promotions to bring the best possible fights to the broadest possible audience. Special thanks to the hard working-team at Affliction and of course our partners at CBS and Showtime.

Arlovski is coming off an impressive win over another IFL fighter Ben Rothwell, where he snapped Rothwell’s 13 fight undefeated streak. This is without question the biggest challenge ever in Roy Nelson’s career, though Nelson has always been regarded as a very good fighter. A win over Arlovski would validate those assessments.

This is a huge, huge boost for Elite XC and a real coup on their part. Their line-up is even more star-studded than before, and they’ll need every bit of it to drive up their ratings after their 2nd show took a bit of a nose dive. Here’s their finalized line-up:

Main Event:
Kimbo Slice vs. Ken Shamrock

Main Card:
Jake Shields vs. Paul Daley (for EliteXC welterweight title)
Andrei Arlovski vs. Roy “Big Country” Nelson
Gina Carano vs. Kelly Kobold
Murilo “Ninja” Rua vs. Benji Radach