UFC
Andrei Arlovski says Alistair Overeem injured Jon Jones "simply because he injures everyone with whom trains"
Aug 19, 2014 - 8:40:05 PM Andrei Arlovski says Alistair Overeem injured Jon Jones "simply because he injures everyone with whom trains"

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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

While Alistair Overeem's time with Greg Jackson's camp started off well enough, things seem to be going the wrong way. After Overeem was named as the man who was grappling with Jon Jones when the Champ tore his meniscus, and now fellow heavyweight Andrei Arlovski says he was almost taken out of his main event bout next month after an overzealous sparring session with Overeem.

"I do not like to wash dirty linen in public, but in these words there is a weighty truth," Arlovski said in an interview with Russia's Sports.ru (rough translation via Google). "A few days ago I was sparring with Alistair Overeem and experienced firsthand how it can end. As usual sparring goes: men represent strikes, touch each other, but do not tend to cause real damage to the partner. During one of the highlights of our sparring Overeem hit me with the hardest knee kick in the stomach. In a real fight would turn out for me by knockout.

"After that, I immediately went to the hospital to make sure that my ribs were not broken. Thank God, everything turned out OK, although at first we were afraid that my fight with Bigfoot would be cancelled. It was so unexpected and so unpleasant that at first I even wanted to take revenge on him, at least hit him with his elbow. But my boxing coach, Andrei Ivchuk, turned around and reassured me. 'Do not be like the people who allow themselves to such dirty tricks - he said. - No need to stoop to their level.' As you can see, a competent coach - this is very important."

"Now I know that Overeem injured Jon Jones simply because he injures everyone with whom trains."

Penick's Analysis: Kind of harsh words from Arlovski, and it's a bit of a condemnation of Overeem's training practices. He's not inspiring confidence from his teammates that he's someone worth working with if two of the bigger names he's worked with have had serious issues because of working with him. Will his time with Jackson's now come to a premature end? If he runs out of people wanting to work with him it just may go that route.

[Alistair Overeem art by Grant Gould (c) MMATorch.com]