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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Despite four straight losses, three of which have come by form of knockout, Andrei Arlovski has no intention of retiring from mixed martial arts.
In a video chat this week (see below video), Arlovski made it clear that he's not done fighting after his most recent loss to Sergei Kharitonov.
"Absolutely not," Arlovski said in response to the retirement question. "First of all, I'm not going to finish my career like this. Definitely, I'm going to keep fighting, and I know it's impossible to fix all these problems. Honestly, I don't know why I keep losing."
His coach Greg Jackson earlier this week blamed some of his problems on fundamentals, and continuing to make similar mistakes in fight after fight. Arlovski said he plans on changing some things up, but again reiterated that retirement wasn't an option for him.
"I'm going to change some things," he said. "I'm [absolutely not] going to f***ing retire. I know it's impossible to come back on the top, and I know it's going to be hard, and it's going to be very difficult for me. But I'm definitely going to do it."
Arlovski's current slide dates back to a January 2009 loss to Fedor Emelianenko. The Kharitonov loss last weekend echoed that fight, in that Arlovski looked to be having some success, scoring strikes and looking solid, before getting caught and finished. The Kharitonov loss wasn't as sudden, as he absorbed a few vicious strikes against the cage before getting dropped by the right hook, but both fights had their similarities.
Now, out of the Strikeforce Heavyweight World Grand Prix, Arlovski needs to go back to square one, find out what needs fixing and go from there.
App Users Click Here For Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcLPl40dWh4
Penick's Analysis: Much like with Chuck Liddell, I have no desire to see Andrei take any more punishment than he's already taken. If he can figure things out and can get back on track and find a way to fight without getting himself knocked out, then maybe he can still right his ship, but he's taken a lot of brutal beatings throughout his fight career, and with only a sliver of knowledge of the consequences of concussions being known at this point, risking his future health more when he's taken so much punishment may not be the best course of action.
[Andrei Arlovski art by Cory Gould (c) MMATorch.com]
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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