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For Andrei Arlovski, it feels like 40 is the new 30 as the former UFC heavyweight champion got back in the win column, and he’s not done yet.

In fact, Arlovski (28-18-2 MMA, 17-12-1 UFC) feels like he has several years ahead of him, and his back-and-forth battle with Ben Rothwell, which resulted in a unanimous-decision unanimous-decision win, proved that “The Pitbull” still has gas in the tank.

“I’m a lucky person, first of all. I have great coaches, I have a great team, a great facility and gym, American Top Team, where there’s a lot of heavyweights,” Arlovski told MMA Junkie Radio on Monday. “The most important thing for me, my wife, to get to do what I do, my passion, it’s my life. She supports me, she takes care of me and like I said, God willing, I want to fight until four, five years, maybe a little bit more. We’ll see.”

It was a hard-fought battle as Arlovski and Rothwell went toe to toe and exchanged hard punches. Both men were bloodied up and exhausted by the sound of the final horn.

Waiting to hear the judges’ scores was a scary moment for Arlovski, who believes he’s been on the wrong end of decisions one too many times. He was worried that it would happen again.

“I still have fire in my eyes, and I want to go, and I’m ready to go, but to be honest with you, I was really scared when we fought three rounds, and I heard that bell, and I said, ‘(Expletive), not again, judges,’” Arlovski said. “I was scared. It (expletive) me up a little bit, but coach Mike (Brown) started screaming don’t worry, you won the first two rounds, but Mike says I’m not sure about the third one but looks like you won two. But I was super scared to be honest with you.”

And while Arlovski was hoping for a finish, the pace and punches took a toll. He started to slow down in the third and had to remind himself who he was fighting for.

“To be honest with you, I was sure I was going to knock him out at the end of the first or second round, but in the third round I started looking at the clock and was like, ‘What the (expletive).’ I was exhausted,” Arlovski said. “I started to remind myself what my son told me before my fight. I guess it gave me some powers. It gave me some push up, and I just finished the third round.”

Arlovski, who is now the UFC record holder for most heavyweight wins, would like to get one or two more fights by the end of the year but knows he has some work to do.

“I just know that I have to improve a lot,” Arlovski said. “I need to train even more. I just need to forget about everything, forget about everyone and just do my stuff.”

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MMA Junkie Radio broadcasts Monday-Friday at 8 p.m. ET (5 p.m. PT) live from Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino’s Race & Sports Book. The show is hosted by “Gorgeous” George Garcia, Brian “Goze” Garcia and Dan Tom. For more information or to download past episodes, go to http://www.mmajunkie.com/radio. You can also check out http://www.siriusxm.com/siriusxmfightnation.