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[Cat--Smasher]

Arlovski: Why training with Freddy Roach was a mistake - Mixed Martial Arts News

Famed boxing trainer Freddy Roach has worked with a number of MMA notables including Georges St-Pierre, Tito Ortiz, Andrei Arlovski, and most recently Muaricio 'Shogun' Rua.

While most fighters offer high praise for Roach. WSoF fighter Arlovksi feels it was not the best use of his time.

Arlovski, who fights Anthony 'Rumble' Johnson on Saturday's WSoF event on NBC Sports Network, trained under Roachin preparation for his 2009 fight Fedor Emelianenko. The training appeared to be paying off, as Arlovski was getting the better of 'The Last Emperor' until he wasn't. Arlovksi inexplicably tried a flying knee, and got caught with a clean shot while in mid air, and went out.

"I'm going to stick with Greg Jackson and other trainers from Greg Jackson's gym if I'm going to keep on fighting," said Arlovski on the MMAJunkie Radio Show.

"I paid too much attention to boxing. I wanted to try professional boxing. That's why I didn't focus on wrestling and jiu-jitsu, and it hurt me."

"This is a camp that's much, much better than before," said Arlovski, who has gone from an 0-4 skid to a 4-0 streak. "(There are) a lot of sparring partners, so I'm more than happy.

"It's good to have light heavyweights and heavyweights because they're not going to be too relaxed in the sparring or the wrestling sessions. You have to be ready all the time to do something or defend something. The last two weeks have been going very, very good for me because I spar a lot with Travis Browne and Jon Jones, and it definitely helped me a lot for my fight."

"Definitely I learned from Freddie, and he taught me some cool stuff. But at the same time, I was hurting my momentum in my MMA technique, and I had some problems with my other coaches. It was a good experience, but I'm not going to come back again to a boxing gym."

[SimpleJack]

So, actually he hurt himself by not focusing on the whole sport.....title is a bit misleading.

[initial_zen]

I hate these damn titles.. They need to stop making it sound like there is beef between people when the interview actually steers away from that.

[rough-n-tumble]

I fail to understand why he wasn't afforded the time to work on any other aspect of the MMA game. Besides, when was the last time we seen him using his grappling and going for a sub. His stand up has looked so much better I think keeping Freddie in the mix is a plus.

[rivethead]

Originally Posted by initial_zen

I hate these damn titles.. They need to stop making it sound like there is beef between people when the interview actually steers away from that.

welcome to mma "journalism." melodrama means more than integrity.

rh

[Masscore]

I remember an interview with his wrestling coach before the Fedor fight saying it was so hard to get Arlovski to work out wrestling before the fight because he was just so focused on training with Eddie Roach.

I never understood why Arlovski didn't take more fights to the ground, he has a wicked ground game and his GnP would be amazing. I guess this shows why.

[Sakara=Excitement]

Originally Posted by rough-n-tumble

I fail to understand why he wasn't afforded the time to work on any other aspect of the MMA game.

I think AA said that he himself focused to much on boxing, wanted to go in to professional boxing, and in turn neglected other aspects of MMA.

[Fedorlei Gomipierre]

Doesn't feel like think there's any heat between Arlovski and Freddie, but rather, as Arlovski elaborates here, he got so caught up in mastering the technique and nuances that Roach was teaching him about boxing, that he neglected the rest of his game.

Now that he's refocused and his entire MMA game, I think it'd be great to see his optimized MMA skillset.

That said, I personally thought Andrei looked incredibly good in the Fedor fight and his striking seemed to really be pushing Fedor to the limit.

I still think Arlovski has a lot left in him. He'll route Rumble, then hopefully he gets a fight in the UFC.

[lwbrewer]

I think he'll need to find somebody with more HW creditability to get back to the UFC than Rumble

[Fedorlei Gomipierre]

The UFC HW division is mighty shallow and since they didn't land Barnett(yet), I think Arlovski brings a lot of cred and it isn't too far ago that he scorched Sylvia and Cole.

Mir would be a fantastic matchup once he loses to Cormier. I'd love to see him take on loser of Nelson/Kongo, since either Rothwell or Nelson II works fine, so does a matchup with Struve or Schaub. Underneath and lesser-known names like Del Rosario, Johnson, Barry, Herman, Duffee could all use a bigtime opponent like Arlovski.

I still believe Andrei can be a top ten HW, maybe not five, but he's still got it. Hell, I think there's a lot to be said for a free TV main event between Arlovski and Carwin.