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[thebwit]

A heavyweight fight between Andrei Arlovski (11-5 MMA, 9-4 UFC) and Jake O’Brien (10-0 MMA, 3-0 UFC) will not be aired live as part of the UFC 82’s pay-per-view broadcast, MMAjunkie.com learned over the weekend.

UFC 82 takes place March 1 at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio. UFC middleweight champ Anderson Silva meets Dan Henderson in the night’s main event.

Arlovski, the UFC’s former heavyweight champion and arguably its biggest star during his reign as a title-holder, is currently on the last fight of his UFC contract, which expires April 15. Rather than sign an extension, he will finish out his contract and then shop the free agent market. Although they haven’t ruled out a return to the UFC, Arlovski and his management team could likely command big money from other organizations such as EliteXC, M-1 Global and HDNet Fights.

So, is his spot on the preliminary card punishment for Arlovski’s decision not to re-sign with the organization? Only the UFC knows for sure. However, keep in mind that Arlovski hasn’t been in an un-televised fight since UFC 40 — which was five years and nine fights ago.

UFC 82 contains a number of main-card-worthy fighters. In addition to Arlovski, “The Ultimate Fighter 1” stand-out Josh Koscheck will also be stuck on UFC 82’s un-televised preliminary card. Koscheck meets Ohio fighter Dustin Hazelett at the event. (With Arlovski and Koscheck relegated to the preliminary card, a fight between Diego Sanchez and David Bielkheden has been placed on the televised main card.)

The full card now includes:

MAIN CARD

* Champ Anderson Silva vs. Dan Henderson (for middleweight title)
* Heath Herring vs. Cheick Kongo
* Yushin Okami vs. Evan Tanner
* Jon Fitch vs. Chris Wilson
* David Bielkheden vs. Diego Sanchez

PRELIMINARY CARD

* Andrei Arlovski vs. Jake O’Brien
* Luke Cummo vs. Luigi Fioravanti
* Dustin Hazelett vs. Josh Koscheck
* Jorge Gurgel vs. John Halverson
* Chris Leben vs. Alessio Sakara

source...
Wow crazy undercard fighters. I can see why Gurgel is on the undercard, but Sanchez over AA to make the televised portion is just wrong.

[peno]

PRELIMINARY CARD

* Andrei Arlovski vs. Jake O’Brien

Fucking turbo gay if you ask me. Complete bullshit. I'm speechless.

[jlruthven84]

Sanchez over AA? Jesus Christ.

[thenitt]

I agree that the AA/O'Brien fight should be on the main card considering AA is definitely in the top 10 HWs and Deigo is not even in the top 10 WW. Since they are both fighting against relatively unknowns, their rankings should decide who gets on the main card. Hell, Koscheck is generally considered a better WW then Diego and he gets shafted. The UFC should have put the AA fight on the main card so that he doesn't feel screwed and leave them.


As for the total card, it is REALLY stacked so even seeing the undercard would be great but not at $2 a pop on UFC.com

[Bran]

i knew this was gonna happen and can understand it from zuffa's point of view since he's not gonna be under contract after the fight. i'm just glad koscheck got the bump over sanchez. obviously i'd rather have arlovski there, but i'll take sanchez over kos any day

[jkilla374]

If UFC does not televise AA's bout on the PPV at all (in between the "main" fights), then I'm pretty sure AA will leave the UFC, and justifiably so.

[BigBanda]

I hope this is not "concrete". I mean its surprising enough that Koscheck is not even on the main card but Arlovski!?!?! ... they are just doing him wrong more and more each time I hear about him.

[CESSPOOL]

This will help AA in making up his mind.....

[NinjaShogunRua]

Arlovski is on the prelims because this is his last fight on his UFC contract and he most likely will go elsewhere. It's not really a big surprise. They have done it in the past to other fighters as well. This is how UFC does business. They aren't going to promote a fighter on a PPV that they think is going to go elsewhere.

[BringOutYourDead]

Fedor vs. Arlovski 2nd half of 2008 Wooooooooooooh