“Hopefully Dana White and Las Vegas PD are not going to charge me with child abuse,” Andrei Arlovski joked ahead of his fight this weekend against Tom Aspinall. “It’s good. It’s 15 years difference between myself and Aspinall. I’m very excited. He’s tough. Strong, young, probably hungry. I’m ready to go.”
The truth is, nearly any opponent Arlovski (30-19, 2NC) fights these days is younger than him. The 42-year old from Belarus is one of the elder statesmen of the UFC heavyweight division, alongside Aleksei Oleinik, who also competes Saturday at UFC Vegas 19.
Aspinall will be the third straight “youngin” Arlovski has fought against. He enters the weekend off a pair of wins over Philipe Lins and Tanner Boser. At 35, Lins was the oldest. Boser and Aspinall are both shy of 30.