UFC Vegas 40’s Andrei Arlovski Asked to Remain Awake During Hand Surgery

It was suggested during the UFC Vegas 40 media day on Wednesday that three fights in a calendar year was pretty good for the timeless Andrei Arlovski.

“I’m not that old, and I’m planning to fight one more time by the end of the year, so we’ll see,” replied  the 42-year old ex-heavyweight champ.

Arlovski (31-20, 2NC), in actual fact, is coming off hand surgery, and revealed that he’d been struggling with his right hand, which would swell and wind up sore after battering opponents. That led to surgery — which he requested to be awake for.

“I did the surgery, great. Doctor, I asked ‘can I be awake? I want to see what you’re going to do.’ He said ‘sure, no problem.'” Surgery, said Arlovski, was all of ten minutes; “fifteen minutes later, I woke up in the recovery room.”

So much for being allowed to stay awake. With luck, however, the surgery will have cleared up an issue with repeat broken hands. “I hope so. We’ll see. It depends how hard I’m going to punch someone,” he quipped.

Arlovski also revealed Wednesday that he’d only just found out he was third on the all-time list for most fights in UFC history. Cowboy Cerrone and Jim Miller, who shares the card with Arlovski this weekend, are ahead of him. “Listen I’m still young, I have a lot of years to go,” joked Arlovski, who will enter fight number 36 at UFC Vegas 40. Miller heads into his 38th fight.

Both men are fighting young lions on Saturday. “I’m fighting a guy who called me out. Carlos Felipe,” noted Arlovski. “Actually at that time I called out [Alexander] Volkov, but he didn’t respond, UFC didn’t respond, so they gave me a young, dangerous opponent, Carlos Felipe.” No doubt still interested in bigger names, Arlovski added “one step at a time.”

Watch the full UFC Vegas 40 media day scrum with Andrei Arlovski above. The event takes place Saturday, October 16, 2021 at the Apex in Las Vegas, NV.