It’s been an intense stretch of events for the Ultimate Fighting Championships. February saw super fights (Aldo vs. Edgar), championship scraps (Barao vs. McDonald) and historic firsts (Rousey vs. Carmouche).
March doesn’t appear to be slowing any, as the world’s largest promotion brings their brand of combat sports back to Japan. “The Axe Murderer” Wanderlei Silva will return to Japan, where he made his name as one of the most intimidating and dominant fighters to ever grace the sport. Standing across from him will be American standout Brian Stann. The card is rounded out by PRIDE veterans Hector Lombard, Takanori Gomi, and Mark Hunt.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at The Bottom Line:
Wanderlei Silva vs. Brian Stann
– This will be Stann’s first time fighting in Japan. Ironically, he was born in Tokyo
– Silva’s takedown ability could be problematic for Stann, as his accuracy is 57% while his defense is 63%
Mark Hunt vs. Stefan Struve
– Struve stands an astounding 7’0″ tall and will have a 9″ reach advantage
– Hunt has landed an average of 3.54 strikes per minute in his professional career
Takanori Gomi vs. Diego Sanchez
– Gomi holds all advantages in this fight, including a takedown accuracy of 65%
– Both fighters are southpaw and Sanchez will have a 2″ reach advantage
Yushin Okami vs. Hector Lombard
– Okami has an amazing ground game, but more impressive is his ability to stay on the feet. His takedown defense is 83%
– Combined with Okami’s takedown defense is his stellar takedown ability. However Lombard has one of the best takedown defenses in the sport at 91%
Mizuto Hirota vs. Rani Yahya
– Hirota’s striking accuracy is above average at 53%
– Yahya holds a takedown defense of 0%.
Dong Hyun Kim vs. Siyar Bahadurzada
– Bahadurzada’s numbers look great at FightMetric.com because his debut inside the Octagon lasted only 42-seconds. His strikes landed in that short amount of time were 4.29, with an accuracy of 75%
– Hopefully Bahadurzada won’t be game planning to take Kim to the ground, because his takedown defense sits at 81%
