UFC Fight Night 93 Preview
In sports, the path to the top is usually pretty straightforward as athletes know the way they can get to where they want to be.
That could be going through college in some sports or for others it is working their way through a big minor league system.
There are always the exceptions who were found in a grocery store or came from seemingly nowhere to play professional sports.
Those are often the exception though as the majority of athletes find their way to the pros in the same path.
That is not the same in MMA though as fighters are a different breed altogether with more than a few paths to the top level.
The ultimate goal for everyone who chooses to fight is to make it to the UFC where the biggest fights and the biggest names are.
If a fighter wants to be the best they have to fight the best and the best are all in the UFC.
There are the more traditional fighters who wrestle throughout their high school and college years and look for a new opportunity after they graduate.
There are those in other martial arts that compete internationally only to come to MMA for a payday and a career after amateur competition.
There is also the new wave of fighters that have seen MMA and begin training everything early in order to eventually make it to the UFC.
These are becoming much more common in the UFC as the all-around fighters are beginning to rise more often than the traditional fighters.
There is also another path but one that is a lot less likely than is used to be and there are only a handful of fighters from that old way.
This way are the pure fighters who started out in the basements of promotions that nobody has heard of in a time where MMA was nothing.
These fighters have been through the lowest level of the sport up to the bright lights of the UFC.
Two such fighters will enter the octagon against each other in the main event in Hamburg as they represent the old guard of the UFC.
Andrei Arlovski has been through almost every level of the sport to get to the UFC only to lose his spot in the UFC and come back.
He has had one interesting path to the big stage as he began his fighting career after taking an interest in martial arts more seriously while he learned the sport as a police officer.
Eventually, he became the first Master of Sports in Sambo and his MMA career began as he started to move up before becoming the UFC heavyweight champion in 2005.
For Josh Barnett, the path was a little more winding as he began his career in the USA but moved on to Japan.
While there he became a massive star with Pride and when people become big stars in Japan they are very big.
He travelled around with Pride and other MMA promotions while also dabbling in professional wrestling along the way.
Like Arlovski, Barnett achieved the dream of making the UFC early on and winning a heavyweight title.
Then he disappeared from the top of the UFC and eventually out of the UFC only to find his way back after fighting in Strikeforce.
Both fighters have seen many different paths to professional fighting but both found their way to the top of the heap in the UFC.
They have tasted the championship in the UFC and have seen it slip away while their time in the UFC has also slipped away.
They have also both made big comebacks that had them on the path back to the heavyweight title until recent struggles.
Both are coming off of big losses in the weight class while Arlovski is coming off of two straight losses.
After they looked like they were future title contenders they have not been able to keep the momentum going.
One will change that in Hamburg as both Barnett and Arlovski have taken the long road to where they are now and both want to continue the path to a championship.
The winner won’t necessarily be the top contender but a win can end a fall and begin another run at the title they have both held.
The Sport Addiction 