The best and worst from UFC 222

#2 Best: Arlovski shows old dogs can learn new tricks

Andrei Arlovski again saved his career by beating Stefan Struve

Okay, so it wasn’t an entertaining fight – Andrei Arlovski’s dull bout with Stefan Struve was probably the low point of last night’s show in fact. But after seeing the likes of Thiago Alves, Mark Hunt and Lyoto Machida all struggle badly in recent months, it was still nice to see an old-school fighter like Arlovski pick up a much-needed win.

Arlovski had come back into the UFC in 2014 and surprisingly resurrected his career with four straight wins, but after being firmly beaten by his next five opponents, it looked like he was once again on the verge of the end. He stymied the bleeding late last year with a win over Junior Albini, but his back was still against the wall coming into last night’s show.

Surprisingly enough, Andrei showed some new wrinkles to his game – using more low kicks and takedowns than we’d seen before, rather than his usual gameplan of simply winging a big right hand at his opponent – and came away with a well-earned – if dull – victory. To see him utilising newer skills after almost two decades in the game was surprising, but impressive too.

Arlovski’s not likely to end up in title contention again anytime soon, but if he can continue to even grind out wins like this then he’ll remain in the UFC, and for a longtime fan who hates seeing old-school fighters go down, that’s cool with me.