But in the eyes of famed boxing trainer Freddie Roach, Fedor Emelianenko is just another MMA fighter that is lacking in standup technique.

“He’s flat-footed, has no technique,” Roach told SI.com’s Josh Gross recently, before adding, “But he can punch. That always helps. He’s accurate. He’ll follow you right to the floor, so he’s aggressive. But that aggressiveness can be used to our advantage, I think.”

By “us,” Roach is referring to him and former UFC heavyweight champion Andrei Arlovski, who will challenge Fedor for the WAMMA heavyweight title on January 24 in Anaheim, California during Affliction’s “Day of Reckoning.”

The bruiser from Belarus has been working with Roach for the past several months as he looks to add polish to his already devestating striking skills that allowed him to record pure knockouts against three of his last five opponents.

While Roach isn’t a particular fan of Fedor’s striking style, he is fully aware of his abilities and prowess as a mixed martial artist. He even compared his reputation of dominance to that of former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson.

“A lot of guys lose the fight before it starts,” Roach is quoted as saying in Gross’ article. “[Emelianenko is] like Mike Tyson. A lot of guys are scared of him. So the mental game is so important that you can’t be scared. You have to be fearless against him.”

But don’t expect Arlovski to be intimidated by Fedor in the slightest. In fact, during a recent press conference to promote the event, “The Pitbull” expressed his belief that it could be Fedor that is the one who has a crisis in confidence.

“After his loss in the Sambo tournament, I think he’s messed up a little bit,” Arlovski said. “He says it’s not important, but c’mon, let’s be serious. He was unbeatable, like, five years, six years in Sambo, and he’s not beatable in MMA. When you lose something, of course it’s (expletive) important. For me, it’s really hard to believe that he doesn’t care about it. Of course he cares. He’s not like 100 percent sure of himself.”

Gross’ article goes on to add that Roach is preparing Arlovski for a possible pro boxing debut that could come after Jan. 24. However, rumors of Arlovski taking on current seven foot WBA heavyweight champion Nikolai Valuev. The Russian giant recently defended his title against Evander Holyfield on Dec. 20, winning a controversial decision that the WBA is currently reviewing.

It’s understandable that no mention of the rumor was made, considering that there appears to be no validity to an 0-0 fighter challenging for a major heavyweight title in his pro debut. As of now, it looks like Roach has laid out a more realistic approach for Arlovski’s boxing aspirations.

“We’ll start off with a low-caliber opponent,” he told Gross. “I wouldn’t have 30 fights. I’d say five fights, then fight [Vitali or Wladimir] Klitschko.”

In Dave Meltzer’s latest column at Yahoo! Sports, he profiles up and coming heavyweight talent Cain Velasquez. Velasquez trains out of American Kickboxing Academy alongside talents such as Josh Koscheck, Mike Swick, and Jon Fitch. He was an All-American wrestler at Arizona State and is arguably the best heavyweight prospect in the UFC today (sorry, Shane Carwin). We all know how coaches talk their fighters up and how people from the same camp talk their teammates up, but coming from Javier Mendez, the head trainer at AKA, this is pretty high praise:

“Right now, he could walk in and be a good pro boxer,” said Mendez about someone who, aside from fooling around with gloves with some friends, had never even put on boxing gloves until August 2006. “He could not only be a good kickboxer, but he’s K-1 level (the Japanese group which is top organization for heavyweights in the world). He won a world championship in Jiu Jitsu (World No Gi world champion in the blue belt division in late 2007, 17 months after his first class). He’s the fastest learner I’ve ever had. And nobody trains harder. He trains harder than the lightweights.”

Mendez, who said Velasquez today could beat Randy Couture, said he saw something in him the first day he came through the door for a tryout.

Like I said, Mendez could be blowing smoke up our asses for all I know, but from listening to people talk about Velasquez as well as hearing some of the stories from his days at ASU and his relentless ability to train like an animal, it seems like the UFC has something special on its hands with him. I don’t particularly know if he could beat someone like Randy Couture right now, but I’m willing to bet that he’d give someone like Couture a run for his money.

His opponent on Saturday, Jake O’Brien, is no laughing matter and probably the biggest test that Velasquez will have faced in his young MMA career. However, I have no doubt that Velasquez will ace that test. The thing about O’Brien is that he’s got good hands and good wrestling, but he never shows his boxing. He’s always so gunshy that we never get to see his great skill with his hands. He almost always reverts back to his wrestling and that’s where I believe Velasquez will dominate the fight. His wrestling is better and he’s not afraid to let his fast, powerful hands fly as we saw in his fight against Brad Morris at UFC 83.

There are big things ahead for Velasquez in the heavyweight division in the UFC and I believe Jake O’Brien will be a perfect stepping stone for him come Saturday.

In its official statement on Tuesday, the university sited “economic realities experienced over a long period of time” as the primary reason for shutting down the wrestling program.

According to ASU’s Vice President of University Athletics, Lisa Love, “These three sports were selected with the following criteria: financial impact, potential competitive success, conference/regional support and gender equity. Our revenue trajectory has been positive, however, our ongoing financial challenges have been well documented by the media. The decision to discontinue sport programs is a last resort, yet necessary.”

The report from MMA Weekly goes on to talk about Arizona State not being the only university to fall on economic hardship right now and may be the first of many schools to put athletic programs on the chopping block. As we’ve seen in recent history, wrestling programs are usually one of the first to be considered to go. For mixed martial arts’ sake let’s hope this is an anomaly and not the standard.

Australian Brad Morris (8-2) will take on highly touted Cain Velasquez (2-0).

Morris is coming off of a TKO win over UFC veteran Kristof Midoux at Bodog Fight: Vancouver back in August of last year.

Cain Velasquez fights out of American Kickboxing Academy and will come into this fight with a lot of praise already heaped upon him. In a recent interview with UFC welterweight Jon Fitch done by 5 Oz’s very own Sam Caplan, Fitch went as far as to label Velasquez, “the biggest and baddest heavyweight” around.

UFC 83 is headlined by a UFC welterweight title clash between current UFC welterweight champion, Matt Serra and current interim UFC welterweight champion, Georges St.Pierre.

Read more UFC 83 content on FiveOuncesOfPain.com.