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UFC FIGHT NIGHT Hits Berlin Heavy on Middleweights! 5/13/2014

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This May 31st, the UFC heads to Berlin’s 02 Arena for their UFC FIGHT NIGHT 41 event.  The show is headlined by a Middleweight bout between Gegard Mousasi and Mark Munoz, and the event is co-headlined by a second Middleweight bout between Francis Carmont and C.B. Dolloway.  Right now Mousasi is a strong favorite at the books, coming in at (-335) with the comeback on Munoz at about (-245).

The line touches o the facts of the fight: Mousasi is probably going to win.  Mousasi is as cool a customer as you will find in MMA,  He has a wealth of ecperience and a strong record of 34-4.  It is not surprising that Mousasi has not exploded onto the UFC scene, as he came over with a lot of talent from STRIKEFORCE and he has been lost in the crowd.   In the UFC, he has been 1-1, with an unimpressive win over an outmatched Ilir Latifi and a loss to Lyoto Machida.

Now Mousasi lost to Machida decisively, but he was not finished by Machida over the course of five rounds.   But Machida, who is in the next title fight, could not finish the elusive Mousasi.  For Machida, the fight prior to Mousasi was Mark Munoz, and he made short work of the Philippino slugger, ending it with a KO head kick within the first 4 minutes of the fight.

Munoz is going to have a punchers chance in the fight, fighters with his type of power will always have that.  Should he elect to gt the fight to the ground Mousasi is a slick ground fighter with a lot of submissions in his MMA career, and his stand up is diverse enough to be better than Munoz.  Not a lot of options over a prolonged fight, Munoz will be looking to land the big punch.

The only risk with Mousasi is that he might elect to not put his foot on the gas, and he allows the fight to extend itself.  If he counts on the judges to deliver a win, it could go either way.  In general, Mousasi needs a win, and he has been a winner his whole career.  Because he is still an unknown and Munoz is popular, it may bear looking to see if the Munoz money comes in as we head into fight week.

 

 

Written by Miguel Iturrate

Miguel Iturrate started in the MMA business in the crazy early days of the mid-nineties. He has match-made more than 100 MMA events in Japan, Brazil, Russia and all over the United States, and played an integral role in MMA’s early modern history. Through Hook 'n' Shoot, Florida’s AFC, the Euphoria shows and bodogfight, Iturrate has left an indelible mark on MMA history. He can also lay claim to a record that not even the UFC can by contracting 36 fights in three days.

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