UFC Fight Night 85 Preview
The heavyweight division continues to be in a strange place in the UFC as the title remains inactive after another cancellation from both contenders.
Although it is frustrating for fans and the UFC it has also created a division where any fight can be the difference in someone’s chances for a title fight.
Fabricio Werdum will return from injury in May to defend his belt against Stipe Miocic but right behind Miocic is a massive amount of contenders.
There is former champion Cain Velasquez who was supposed to get his rematch before he pulled out due to injury slightly before Werdum did the same.
Alistair Overeem has made his case and will fight Andrei Arlovski in May in a very important fight for the division and the contender group in the division.
Meanwhile, Travis Browne, Ben Rothwell, Junior dos Santos, and Josh Barnett have all had good fights recently that may put them a fight away from earning a shot.
There are so many potential contenders for the title as they continue to wait for regular title fights that can actually get things moving.
Inactivity is not an option for any fighter aside from Miocic as they all must stay active throughout this title fight drought.
That can make things interesting because the fights that everyone wants to see are between contenders where only one can walk away still as a contender.
That makes every fight that much more important because there is only so much room at the top while the title is being figured out.
Two fighters have been a part of that title picture for a while but right now they are sitting on the outside looking in after a tough few fights.
When he entered the UFC Mark Hunt was not on the greatest run but he figured things out and after losing six straight fights in Pride and Dream along with his UFC debut he began to put together wins.
It seemed sure that he was going to be contending for the title but a loss to Junior dos Santos ended that run.
He continued to impress but continued to come up short in the big fights including an interim title fight against Werdum.
A win in his last fight has him back on the right track but he will now have to take on a former champion if he hopes his name can be put among the contenders in the division.
Frank Mir has been through plenty of ups and downs in his MMA career so he is used to falling down only to get back up.
He has shown that there is never a time to count him out of the title hunt and will try to prove it again after a loss to Arlovski in his last fight.
The former heavyweight champion has been a little up and down in his last few years in the UFC as he hasn’t been able to make much of a run for a while.
After his loss, he is trying to get back on track as another loss could be the beginning of the end for his long and storied career.
Both fighters have been around for a while in the MMA game and in the current heavyweight environment winning means so much more.
They will try to take a win and find their way to the long list of contenders as a loss for either might make things much more difficult for either of them to make a run at the title.
Like every heavyweight fight, there should be a steady amount of heavy strikes from either side although Mir has always been more of a technical striker while Hunt loads up for big shots.
What is slightly different is that fact that Mir was the original ground fighter in the division and continues to use that as best he can.
He does like to strike and his technical style of striking is great but there is no doubt that he should take a page out of the books of a few fighters from last weekend and take this fight to the ground.
Hunt has proven little in that regard which seems to make it obvious that the best place for Mir to fight is on the ground rather than risking taking a big shot from the heavy-handed shot.
If Mir gets this fight to the ground his BJJ is too good for Hunt to overcome and that is what will happen as Mir will take the win and keep his name in the title hunt.
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