It’s always kind of endearing to see a fighter issue a challenge in his or her post-fight interview and get the fight. This weekend, we saw the fruits of once such call-out in the fight of the year, as Dooho Choi had called out the winner of Cub Swanson vs. Tatsuya Kawajiri and had an all-action war with Swanson. The night before UFC 206, at the Fight Night card in Albany, heavyweight Francis Ngannou called his shot after making short work of Anthony Hamilton, putting Andrei Arlovski on his short list of fights he wanted. On this week’s edition of UFC Tonight, it was revealed that he got his wish.
The fight is set for January 28th in Denver at UFC on Fox: Pena vs. Shevchenko. Ngannou has been perfect in his UFC run so far, going 4-0 with each win being inside the distance. Arlovski is the toughest opponent he’s faced by far, but he is on a three fight skid, finished each time, after starting his return to the UFC at 4-0. After a controversial split decision win over Brendan Schaub, Arlovski beat Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva and upset Travis Browne by first round knockouts. In his last fight before his losing streak, the former UFC Heavyweight Champion beat fellow former titleholder Frank Mir by decision in a fight where he admitted that he took his opponent lightly, leading to a tepid performance.
