{"id":3975,"date":"2016-03-19T21:14:59","date_gmt":"2016-03-19T21:14:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blackbeltwhitehat.com\/?p=3975"},"modified":"2016-03-19T21:15:11","modified_gmt":"2016-03-19T21:15:11","slug":"ufc-brisbane-frank-mir-vs-mark-hunt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blackbeltwhitehat.com\/en\/2016\/03\/19\/ufc-brisbane-frank-mir-vs-mark-hunt\/","title":{"rendered":"UFC Brisbane – Frank Mir Vs Mark Hunt"},"content":{"rendered":"

ahhh, love but hate this match up. \u00a0Two of my favourite fighters…<\/p>\n

Frank Mir – I remember him since he did that really weird arm lock from guard against Pete Williams:<\/p>\n

\"Mir<\/p>\n

He’s one of the most intelligent, technical heavyweight fighters of all time – he looks like a 20 stone meathead but he fights like an absolute genius when the scrap\u00a0hits the ground. A black belt under Ricardo Pires he broke Jiu Jitsu and MMA legend – Minotauro Nogueira’s arm with a kimura.<\/p>\n

\"KimuraMir.gif\"<\/p>\n

And Tim Sylvia’s forearm with a straight arm bar:<\/p>\n

\"tim\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I won’t give you a headache by uploading any more animated GIFs but, Mir’s striking is also pretty high-level, with some impressive KO wins over the likes of Todd Duffee and Antonio BigFoot Silva.<\/p>\n

In the past a lot of grapplers-turn-strikers\u00a0seem to approach boxing\u00a0the wrong way – by hitting pads, and sparring, and not really analysing\u00a0the different techniques and counters. \u00a0Not Mir. \u00a0He breaks down his striking, in a similar way to Jiu Jitsu. \u00a0He’s also developing his stand-up game with different combinations and an expanding range of strikes. \u00a0From the overhand punch that dropped\u00a0Cheick Kongo (2 months after replacing his striking coach), to the jab-left hook <\/a>combo that dropped BigFoot, he’s a very technical striker who seems to be constantly learning. (He also owns a knee-KO against striking legend Crocop – although I did nearly fall asleep watching that fight).<\/p>\n

His proverbial achilles heel however, has always been his lack of explosive power. \u00a0Although he’s packed on size over the last decade or so, he’s never become a fantastic athlete. \u00a0He’s been overpowered by less technical, more ‘fast twitch’ (and no doubt roided to the gills) fighters like Carwin and Lesnar. \u00a0Although he did buck this trend with a superb left hook – inside ‘the pocket’ against the bigger and more athletic Todd Duffee. \u00a0Again, this was an intelligent and tactical method to get the victory. \u00a0Back up against Duffee and he’ll swarm…Mir no doubt had a plan, and executed it perfectly \u00a0– beating Duffee to the punch (similar to Joe Lauzon KO against Melvin Guillard<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Mark Hunt<\/strong> on the other hand, is a 5ft 10 (Mir is 6ft 3) Samoan, 19 stone beast that has the chin of a rhino and the leaping left hook of a monster (think Godzilla crossed with Mike Tyson). \u00a0He loves using the Russian style hook (throwing the hook with a near-straight arm and turning the thumb down), overhand right and uppercut.<\/p>\n

Here he is, dropping the 7foot Stefan Struve –<\/p>\n

\"markhuntko.gif\"<\/p>\n

It’s kind-of horrible to watch that KO, I can only imagine how painful that must of been (Struve broke his jaw), but it’s also kind of awesome in a reptile-brain <\/a>kind of way.<\/p>\n

Hunt, is a former K1 Grand Prix champion (an event that used to bring together the best strikers in the world from all different styles like kickboxing, karate, etc). He’s also strong as fcuk. Like freakily strong, beating a sumo wrestler, 25 stone Bob Sapp, and one of the strongest men in the world at tug of war:<\/p>\n