This Saturday, the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is all set to kickstart its 2024 schedule. The event? UFC Fight Night 234, taking place at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. What’s on the cards? A surprisingly solid preliminary slate.
The former heavyweight champion, Andrei Arlovski, is making his 41st appearance inside the Octagon. He’s headlining the event against the once-beaten Waldo Cortes-Acosta. And that’s not all.
Further down the card, we have some exciting bantamweight bouts. Rising talents Farid Basharat and Taylor Lapilus are ready to turn a win into a charge up the rankings. Then there’s a pairing between Marcus McGhee and Gaston Bolanos, promising to be an all-action affair.
The event opens with some top prospects. Tom Nolan, an Australian lightweight, was a standout on the 2023 edition of Dana White’s Contender Series. He’s making his Octagon debut here. Meanwhile, flyweight Joshua Van is looking to reaffirm his status as one of the most electric young martial artists in the sport.
Now, let’s preview the UFC Fight Night “Ankalaev vs. Walker 2” prelims. The heavyweights are Waldo Cortes-Acosta (10-1, 3-1 UFC) and Andrei Arlovski (34-22, 23-16 UFC). The odds are in favor of Cortes-Acosta (-600), with Arlovski (+440).
Is the end near for Arlovski? It’s been almost 18 years since Arlovski was the UFC’s heavyweight champion and nearly 13 years since a string of knockouts had most thinking that “The Pit Bull” should retire. But he’s persevered. Arlovski has even come surprisingly close to a heavyweight title shot in 2015 upon his UFC return.
Arlovski has seemingly settled into a solid niche circa 2020. Any hopes of title contention were now long gone, but Arlovski’s veteran craft allowed him to outwork the many middling heavyweights on the UFC roster. He kept cashing checks for the privilege. There was even a two-year stretch where Arlovski won six of seven fights.
However, his last two fights have raised some worries that his career might finally be on its last legs. It was not necessarily a surprise to see Marcos Rogerio de Lima run Arlovski over late in 2022, but a subsequent loss to Don’Tale Mayes made it look a bit more like an omen.
Arlovski’s late-career form has relied heavily on his ability to make it to the final horn. Losing his durability for the last time feels like it would be a death knell for a near 45-year-old heavyweight. That makes this fight against Cortes-Acosta feel particularly important when it comes to Arlovski’s career going forward.
Cortes-Acosta, a late comer to mixed martial arts after a career in baseball, is still all raw talent in need of experience at this point. Despite suffering his first career loss to Rogerio de Lima, Cortes-Acosta fought back from a rough start and took the fight to a decision. He looked a bit more aggressive in what wound up as a brutal knockout win over Lukasz Brzeski in August.
Arlovski should win the balance of this fight, but Cortes-Acosta should clip him at some point. With each man’s recent performances, that looks likelier than ever to wind up in a knockout victory for the Dominican. The pick is Cortes-Acosta via second-round knockout.
Continue reading to explore more about the Cortes-Acosta vs. Arlovski fight, as well as Semelsberger vs. Parsons, McGhee vs. Bolanos, Basharat vs. Lapilus, Silva vs. Wilson, Nolan vs. Motta, and Van vs. Bunes.