Saturday March 19th, UFC Fight Night 85: Mark Hunt vs. Frank Mir goes down at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre, in Brisbane, Australia. Hunt is coming off a devastating knockout of Antonio Silva, whereas Mir is coming off a razor thin decision loss to Andrei Arlovski.
Both Hunt and Mir are in the middle of the pack when it comes to heavyweight title contention, and are both coming close to the end of their careers. The winner will have a legitimate case to fight someone in the top five next, whereas the loser will have a hard time climbing back to the top.
Mir’s key to victory is avoiding Hunt’s dangerous punching power and getting the fight to the ground. The last thing Mir wants to do is to try and slug it out. Mir is arguably the best heavyweight UFC Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioner of all time, an area Hunt has struggled with in the past.
Hunt’s key to victory is his knockout power. Hunt will need to do what he needs to keep this fight standing, whether it’s using a jab to keep his distance, or good takedown defense.
Hunt has made a conscious effort to keep his weight down so he doesn’t have to cut to get down to the 265 pound heavyweight limit, and looked good coming into his last fight. Mir always has the chance to pull off a slick submission, and has shown knockout power of his own. Here’s the catch – when Mir tries to keep his fights on the feet with high level strikers, such as Junior Dos Santos and Shane Carwin, he usually crumbles.
My pick: Mark Hunt by 1st round KO.
Main card starts at 10pmPT/7pmET. Having trouble finding where to watch? Click here.
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