According to fighthype.com Andrei Arlovski has been signed to a boxing contract with Golden Boy Productions.

“Sources close to the situation have informed us that former UFC heavyweight champion Andrei Arlovski is set to announce his signing with Golden Boy Productions and that win, lose or draw against Fedor Emelianenko on January 24th his next fight will take place inside a boxing ring.”

This is somewhat surprising news, but we have heard Arlovski discuss it in the past. Earlier this year, Arlovski was rumored to make his debut on the undercard of the September 13th Marquez Casamayor bout.

Arlovski’s boxing coach, Freddie Roach, seems to think that Arlovski is ready for the best that boxing has to offer.

“If Andrei wins against Fedor on the 24th, I would put him right into a title fight with Nikolai Valuev right away. It would be Belarus vs. Russia and that’s huge marketing for PPV and Andrei has a huge crowd in that area. He will cross over into boxing though, that’s a definite! His next fight after Fedor will be a boxing match.”

Now, although this can appear to be grim news on the surface (as it means that we will be seeing less of Arlovski fighting in MMA bouts) it could mean big things for the sport. If Arlovski is to be successful in boxing, it could bring a whole new generation of fighters to the sport, as well as help it gain some credibility with the average sports fan.