Purchase includes free access to book updates online and a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Andrei Arlovski (Belarusian: , born February 4, 1979) is a Belarusian mixed martial arts fighter and a former Ultimate Fighting Championship heavyweight champion. He currently competes for the Strikeforce promotion. He is considered to be one of the top ten ranked heavyweights in the world by multiple MMA publications. Arlovski was born in Bobruisk and raised in Minsk, in the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic of the former USSR (now Belarus). When he was younger, bullies often picked on him and beat him up. In 1994, when he was 14 years old, he finally had enough and started lifting weights to put on muscle and, he hoped, to help him deal with these bullies. Andrei only took up martial arts at the age of 16 having previously been interested in soccer. It was an interest in personal fitness and conditioning that led Arlovski to take an interest in combat sports. Enrolling at the police academy in Minsk, Arlovski combined his interest in a career in law enforcement with his growing martial arts participation by taking up the required police defense course in Sambo and quickly showed himself to be a highly competent Sambo exponent. In 1998 Andrei was defeated by Sean Nagy in a 5 round military MMA fight which is not recorded on his official record. In 1999, Andrei won the European Youth Sambo Championship and the World Youth Championship. Not long after, Andrei became the first Master of Sports and then International Master of Sports. He also took a silver medal at the Sambo World Cup and another silver medal at the World Sambo Championship. Arlovski began taking a greater interest in other martial arts, studying kickboxing and developing his striking skills to complement his Sambo-based grappling abilities. At the age of 20, Arlovski bega. More:
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