UFC Fight Night: Lewis vs Hunt - Jun 11

[wandshogun09]

Off to Auckland, New Zealand for this Sunday Fight Night on June 11th. 

 

 

FOX SPORTS 1 MAIN CARD
Derrick Lewis vs Mark Hunt

Derek Brunson vs Dan Kelly 

Ross Pearson vs Dan Hooker

Ion Cutelaba vs Henrique Da Silva

Tim Elliott vs Ben Nguyen 

Alexander Volkanovski vs Mizuto Hirota

 

FOX SPORTS 1 PRELIMS
Damien Brown vs Vinc Pichel

Dominique Steele vs Luke Jumeau

John Moraga vs Ashkan Mokhtarian 

Kiichi Kunimoto vs Zak Ottow

 

FIGHT PASS PRELIMS
JJ Aldrich vs Chan Mi Jeon

 

All about that main event, isn't it? 

 

 

Derrick Lewis vs Mark Hunt. The Black Beast vs The Super Samoan. Yeah, this is ***WAND'S ONE TO WATCH***. I usually try to shine some light on an overlooked undercard fight or something for this but fuck it. This is the one. This doesn't really make sense from a matchmaking perspective, to be honest. The Beast is riding a 6 fight winning streak and just knocked out Mr Rousey. Meanwhile, Hunt lost his last two fights to Brock Lesnar and Alistair Overeem. The Brock fight was overturned to a No Contest but everyone saw that he got dominated. Then Overeem KO'd him dead with a big knee. The prick. So these two shouldn't really be matched up at this point. Who the fuck cares though? From an entertainment POV, this makes all the sense in the world. Two big bastards slinging brick fists at each other until someone falls down. It's what heavyweight is meant to be. Only shit thing about this is I don't want either to lose.

 

Hmmmm, Brunson vs Kelly is another funny piece of matchmaking actually. Brunson is coming into this fight off back-to-back losses to Anderson Silva and Robert Whittaker. And he's fighting Dan Kelly who's won four in a row and just scored the biggest win of his career with a decision over Rashad Evans. Strange one. And this isn't even the surefire crowd pleaser that Lewis vs Hunt promises to be. You can see why they would forego the rankings and what makes sense to give us Beast-Hunt. Brunson-Kelly, not so much. Kelly's awkward as fuck. I think Brunson should be winning this fairly comfy. You never know but that's what should happen, IMO. 

 

 

Pearson vs Hooker should be an all action type fight. You know the type of fight you're getting out of Ross Pearson and Dan Hooker won't shy away from that. He's had his share of losses but his recent losses were to Jason Knight and Yair Rodriguez. No shame there. He did KO the once heavily hyped Hatsu Hioki with a headkick. He's from Auckland as well so expect a hot crowd for this one. 

 

What else? 

•Elliott vs Nguyen will probably be good. Was originally going to be Benavidez vs Nguyen but Benavidez pulled out. I expect Elliott to run away with this. I like watching Nguyen but I think he's out of his depth against the Elliotts and Benavidez's of the world. 

•Quite like watching John Moraga fight. He's never troubling the contenders and his UFC record isn't good but I like his style. 

•Volkanovski looked impressive from what I remember of his UFC debut, so I'm looking forward to his fight. 

 

Bit of a thin card for the kiwis but that main event makes it all worthwhile. 

[ColinBollocks]

Genuinely, there is not a fight on the horizon this year that I'm wanting to see more than Lewis v Hunt. Woof!

I hope Lewis wins this, because it makes the division a little bit fresher. Plus, he's mental.

[Shane O' Mac Version 2]

It's a pity it's such a one fight card, I was considering taking the 2 hour flight over to Auckland for this card when it was first announced, but the lack of depth in this card and the lack of money in my account (still recovering from going to Orlando for Wrestlemania) put paid to that idea.

Lewis vs. Hunt should be fun, but not a whole lot of intrigue for me. Hunt still packs a punch and has most of his chin, but has slowed down considerably over the last year or two, like he just doesn't have that stamina anymore. He used to be a big man that was deceivingly fit, but his age is starting to make his fitness level match his looks unfortunately. He looked like he was moving in slow motion before he started taking the beating in the Miocic fight and recently in the Overeem fight it was much of the same before those knees of doom. Sadly, I think there's a decent chance the Black Beast finishes Mark and he retires there in NZ- I hate to say that as a Hunt fan.

Brunson vs. Kelly... you just kinda get the feeling Dan Kelly pissed someone off by beating Rashad Evans in his last go out. Mr. Dad Bod has this weird habit of winning fights he shouldn't, but surely that ends here against Derek Brunson. Rashad didn't push forward enough, and Brunson typically has no problem in that area. I think Brunson could do exactly what he tried to do against Robert Whittaker and just storm Kelly, the judoka isn't fast enough and doesn't possess the striking skills to do anything about that. It's been a fun underdog story, but Brunson by R1 KO demolition.

Elliott vs. Nguyen is probably my FOTN pick. Tim Elliott has been fantastic since his UFC return, and Ben 10 always brings it.

Pearson vs. Hooker could be another sleeper. Dan Hooker can be a little inconsistent and despite a lack of consistency from Pearson's side too, I think Ross has more tools standing to get it done.

Damien Brown has won me over since a tough debut loss in the UFC in Brisbane. Not the most gifted guy athletically but very gritty.

Alex Volkanovski is a local boy, lives 20 mins away from me and we have a mutual friend. He was very impressive in his UFC debut, fighting up a weight class and still looking powerful, so I'm excited to see what he does at featherweight now.

So, yeah, should be worth a watch. Just not worth a $300 flight and $300 ticket. Would love them to bring a fight back to Sydney, UFC seem to have forgotten us.

[Egg Shen]

very cool video of Mark Hunt's team mates praying and performing a Haka for Hunt before his fight this Sunday:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nciCh6g83qg

for the eagle eyed amongst you, you may spot a Hollywood actor amongst them (or those who read the sidebar).

[OzExile]

same shane-o-mac, I was going to try to bump the Aucky card with the Lions tour game yesterday but when you stack up all the coin - it just didn't quite add up. 

Still I'll be sat watching at home and reckon it'll be a good one - the Kiwis will show up good.  

'Dad bod' Kelly is a hero of a man but for the sake of the MW division Bruns needs to find a win in this one.  Rooting for Dan Hooker too - personally I think he gets it done against Ross.  Hard to see what Ross offers any more.  

Hunt v Black Beast is fun as fuck.  If Lewis comes through this - the UFC need to stick a rocket on him.  The most likeable bloke on the whole roster at the moment for me.

Volkanovski looked good in Melbourne on debut - but he looked like a BW and wasn't he fighting at 155?

[Egg Shen]

yeh, hes only 5'6.

 

[Shane O' Mac Version 2]

There's a lot of intrigue about Volkanovski's fight in the local area. He usually fights at 145, but he kept having issues with people dropping out in trying to make his UFC debut, so I think he said "fuck it" and debuted at 155 knowing it's a deep division and he could just get in the Octagon finally. It's back to featherweight for this next effort though, so his power should show even more based on how he was taking 145ers out pre-UFC. Some of the punches he connects with really make me wince.

[Guy Bifkin]

Dan Kelly is my favourite middleweight. I don't know what it is about a flabby forty something with fucked up knees that I identify with, but I hope he gives Brunson a good thrashing. 

[Egg Shen]

any ideas what times this is on?

[wandshogun09]

9 hours ago, Egg Shen said:

any ideas what times this is on?

Prelims from 1am, main card from 3am on BT Sport 2. 

[wandshogun09]

Is it just me or is there almost zero hype for this? It's TONIGHT, for fuck's sake! I haven't been exactly scouring the internet for stuff but it just doesn't feel like there's much buzz. It's not a big show but it's fucking Derrick 'Black Beast' Lewis vs Mark 'Super Samoan' Hunt. 

Makes no odds really. It's not a fight I need to hype myself up for. 

How do we see it going? Like we always say, heavyweight MMA is a fucking lottery most of the time. They're so big and powerful and dangerous that it's true that of the top ten guys in the division, almost anyone can beat anyone on their night. These two especially are two of the hardest hitting, heaviest handed fuckers on the roster. Beast's undoubtedly got the momentum but what's momentum in heavyweight MMA? Momentum won't mean shit if you get walloped across the jaw with a Mark Hunt haymaker. 

It's almost a dead on 50/50 but I am going to go with Lewis. Hunt's always lethal and when he lets his shit fly it's absolutely devastating but he hasn't really looked his old self in his last two fights. Against Lesnar and Overeem he looked a bit tentative and gunshy. I got why given he didn't want Brock taking him down and Overeem's striking but Hunt's always been a balls out, do or die type of attacking fighter. He hasn't been pulling the trigger like he used to recently IMO. Which is making me think he might be finally slowing down and feeling the effects now of a long as fuck badass career. 

So yeah. I'm picking Beast to catch him. I love both of them though. I won't be rooting hard one way or the other. Obviously a Beast win is better for the division at this point but I'm just going to sit back and enjoy this bastard. 

[WeeAl]

I like Lewis for this fight. As you say Wand, Hunt is looking a little gunshy, but Lewis is anything but. I see him being after Hunt from the start. I think Lewis by TKO towards the end of the 2nd. 

Rooting for Dan Kelly against Brunson. If this turns into a close battle of wills going into the last few minutes, I expect Kelly to push harder for it than Brunson and do enough to get the decision. Hopefully. Although I've went back and forth on that, so god knows. It's MMA for fucks sake. Sometimes it's as predictable as the alarm clock, but a lot of the time it seems to be a complete lottery. 

[Noah Southworth]

1 hour ago, wandshogun09 said:

Is it just me or is there almost zero hype for this?

Outside of the main event and one or two other fighters, it’s a sea of names that range from ‘I remember that guy, from that one fight against that one dude; you remember?’ to ‘Isn’t that a name of someone in Star Trek?’. A card like this, with a bunch of fighters who may as well be interchangable for all the difference it’ll make if any one of them drops out, doesn’t exactly inspire one to get hyped up. And as much interest and excitement as the main event does generate, the only fight of the card to achieve such a feat, even that isn’t what it could be thanks to Hunt’s all too obvious slide and his chin having more cracks than a Ben Dover film festival.

I don’t intend to come off as such a downer about the card; it’ll probably be good for fight quality. But this card generates about as much excitement as a meeting of the Steve Davis Fan Club.

[WeeAl]

I'm with you there Noah. Other than the main event, nothing is particularly interesting. The Singapore card coming up is overall much more interesting, but with a way less exciting main event than this show. Then you have the Glasgow show which is the least inspiring lineup that I have seen in a long time.

Lot's of the show's this year have fights that could certainly be very exciting, but are lacking in fights that actually mean anything to the divisions, or that have people involved that fans have been invested in for years. 

[Egg Shen]

4 hours ago, wandshogun09 said:

How do we see it going? Like we always say, heavyweight MMA is a fucking lottery most of the time. They're so big and powerful and dangerous that it's true that of the top ten guys in the division, almost anyone can beat anyone on their night. These two especially are two of the hardest hitting, heaviest handed fuckers on the roster. Beast's undoubtedly got the momentum but what's momentum in heavyweight MMA? Momentum won't mean shit if you get walloped across the jaw with a Mark Hunt haymaker. 

I

Lewis needs to make this thing ugly, push Hunt up against the fence and try battering him up close. Any seperation and Lewis is going to get destroyed, a few leg kicks and the Beast will be there for the taking. It's gonna be brutal either way.