I still remember how Arlovski was devastated when he went 0-4 against Fedor, Brett Rogers, Bigfoot and Sergei.
He was talking retirement but also said that he needed to change his game completely, coming back to square one, maybe leave MMA for a try at pro boxing , etc...
Frankly after the brutal Sergei loss, we (his fans) didn't want to watch him get hurt again, and thought he was done at high-level.
AA vs Sergei was a long-awaited dream match, and it's conclusion was that mah doppelgänger Andrei always had a suspect chin behind a suspect defense, that it would never change and + now he got gun-shy.
But he slowly crept back up, KOing Sherdog's mascot Travis "" Fulton with a brutal head-kick at literately the last second, then soccer kicked the crap out of Sylvia in their 4th meeting, lost to Rumble in a close and controversial fight (with the big punch of the fight being thrown when the horn should have been already blown).
Still, it was getting better, AA was active and winning fights, and then a new UFC run, most fans didn't give him a chance, "Dana just want him as a big name gatekeeper, and so no one else could claim him", style.
But then, first Schaub (who was ranked #10 IRCC, followed by a nice revenge over BF (also top 10) via brutal "vintage AA" KO, then a GREAT win over (then top 5) Travis Brown, and at that point he should have gotten a TS.
He had a previous win over Werdum in the UF, and beat Travis Brown with zero controversy, I know his word means shit but Dana said that Andrei was next in line. Then "no let's do Cain rematch! Brilliant!"
So AA fought Frank Mir to stay in shape, another long awaited fight between 2 UFC HWs veterans and both former champs, and Arlovski won a close and boring decision; but we should know better nowadays than to expect fireworks between aging legends, especially these inconsistent but lovable 2.
And then got KO'd under a minute by Stipe.
Damn that was a killers row, not a single "break" fight, what a way to welcome back one of the only good and charismatic HWs that the UFC showcased, when PRIDE was clearly the organisation that had the best fighters at the time...
Still rooting for AA, Miocic has looked good since he joined the UFC and we'll see him in action against Werdum soon, we'll see. Stipe is still relatively young and has started MMA in 2010, he can make another title run if he loses here.
As for AA, if he beats AO in a month, who just beat JDS... he could get back into title contention if Werdum beats Miocic.
Unless he has to beat the Big Ben/JDS winner, which would be bullshit once again, but let's not peek too far into the future...
Dang it, I've only rambled about AA, guess that was my favorite recent come-back, even if I enjoyed Hunt's one too.
And Robbie of course, damn thank Kami that we didn't have to sit through an immediate 3rd Hendricks rematch as originally planned.
Still can't believe he beat Rory "Red Waterboy King Ares" McDonald in that rematch, crazy ass berserkers...
And talking about Andre, I'm pretty stocked about the return of his old rival Datsik, who just got out of prison (is he already out? They q
