For the past few UFC Fight Night events, we’ve seen mostly one or two appealing fights on paper. The cards have been pretty weak, which is what you would expect considering how many events are going on a monthly basis. After looking at UFC Fight Night 33, I’m actually really impressed on how many good fights they are bringing to Australia.

UFC Fight Night 33: Can the old guard persevere?

This is an excellent free event that fans should be excited to watch. Obviously Mark Hunt is always an attraction and every fight he’s in will always get major attention. His bout with Antonio Silva is up there, as one of the best main events for a free card in 2013. Then you have Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, who is in desperate need of a win. He faces a rising star that has one punch knockout power in James Te Huna.

A few other appealing main card fights are Ryan Bader against Anthony Perosh and Pat Barry against Soa Palelei. They brought in all of the top Australian figherts for this event and it has benefited them greatly. The event is sold out and it’s getting a lot more buzz than the Australia event from last year. This article is going to be different from the five questions preview I usually do.

One common theme for the four fights are that it features older fighters. Some may be on the decline, while others are coming off impressive performances. I’ll break down four fighters that are in a dire need of a win. I may do this more often for fight night events, if I see a common theme on the main card.

Pat Barry

Even though he’s actually younger than Palelei, he’s still a veteran in a must-win situation. This is another bad matchup for Barry facing someone as massive as Palelei. You’ll never see a dull fight featuring Barry, but we may actually see it here. I’m expecting Palelei to look to take the fight to the ground knowing how much of a liability Barry is on the ground. Why would he want to stand and trade with someone as dangerous as Barry? Sure he has more than enough knockout power, but I’m sure his coaches are telling him that he can win the fight quickly by taking it to the ground and using his strength advantage.

What Barry needs to do is utilize leg kicks and not get reckless. If he can stay patient and make Palelei moving, then he has a great opportunity to win the fight. I’m not sure what to believe when it comes to Palelei’s cardio issues from his last fight. There were reports saying that a rib injury was affecting him badly throughout the fight. Regardless of the reports, Barry needs to use his speed and frustrate Palelei before finishing him off.

Verdict: This fight is pretty much a toss up, but I’m slightly leaning towards Barry. Even though I still feel he shouldn’t be fighting at heavyweight, he knows how to use his speed advantage, utilize leg kicks, and change levels to frustrate his opponent. Palelei will eventually get reckless and Barry will finish him off in the second round.

Anthony Perosh

What a story his UFC career has been. After losing to Mirko Cro Cop, he’s gone 4-1 in the UFC coming off a 14 second knockout over Vinny Magalhaes. At 41 years old, everyone is shocked to see him still competing at a high level. This is a huge moment for him, especially going up against someone as tough as Ryan Bader. People will criticize Bader for being reckless and predictable, but he’s still a top ten light heavyweight who is a handful for just about any light heavyweight.

The odds are stacked against Perosh going up against someone as explosive as Bader, who can cause serious damage when he’s in top control on the ground. Obviously Perosh is dangerous on the ground being a black belt in BJJ, along with having knockout power. This is still the toughest opponent he’s ever faced in the UFC and it ends up being a wrestler. He’ll need to finish the fight early; otherwise he’ll be on the receiving end of some brutal ground and pound.

Verdict: This fight is out of Perosh’s league. He is always a joy to watch, but I don’t see how he’ll last fighting at Bader’s constant pace. He may be able to pull off the upset from a counter punch or triangle choke to shock the world again. In the end, Bader is too strong and explosive to lose again. He won’t throw wild overhand rights, after Glover Teixeira made him pay for doing that last September.

Shogun Rua

Whenever Shogun fights, people always bring up how young he is. After being in so many wars, he’s only 32 years old yet people talk about him like he’s 38. His decline has been that severe, where his last impressive performance was arguably in the epic five round battle against Dan Henderson in 2011. His last victory over Brandon Vera wasn’t anything spectacular. There is nobody on this card that has more pressure than Shogun in terms of winning.

One advantage in this fight is that Te Huna will keep the fight standing. He won’t look for the takedown like Sonnen or use the reach to his advantage like Gustafsson. This is going to be a stand up war, but can Shogun still hang? Te Huna is very explosive and continues to improve, despite the loss to Glover Teixeira which was taken on short notice. This would be my pick for fight of the night.

Verdict: What makes this event so exciting is that almost all of these fights are hard to predict. This is another close call, but I’m going to pick Te Huna. It’s hard to have any confidence left in Shogun. His cardio is terrible and doesn’t seem to utilize knees as much as he used to. He seems broken down, while Te Huna is a rising star. Who knows we could see the rejuvenated Shogun that fans have been waiting for. I have major doubts that will ever see that happen.

Mark Hunt

I’m still in shock of a recent picture that Hunt put up of himself with abs. The “KFC king” must have removed KFC from his diet for kale, fruit, and coconut water. In all seriousness, I couldn’t be more excited to see Hunt back in the octagon. His fight against Junior Dos Santos may have been the best heavyweight fight I’ve ever seen under the UFC banner (relax Pride fans). Hopefully he learned from that fight and worked on improving his cardio. Dos Santos picked his spots and used his speed to pick him apart. Hunt stood around too much and struggled to close the distance, which led to the loss. Antonio Silva is very agile for a fighter his size, along with posing major problems.

Hopefully the pictures aren’t a complete farce like the picture of Roy Nelson looking slim. Nelson’s cardio was still horrendous and he was completely outworked by Daniel Cormier. Hunt has never had an embarrassing performance like that, but you could see that his cardio limits him. You won’t see Silva stand-and-trade like Stefan Struve and Cheick Kongo. He has much better head movement and won’t stand around like Hunt’s past two victims.

Verdict: The longer the fight goes, Silva will have the advantage. Even though Hunt seems to be in better shape, Silva is always in great shape. We saw in his fight against Alistair Overeem, where he eventually overwhelmed Overeem with punches in the third round. Silva’s jaw is a major question mark though and that could very well be the difference maker. It only takes one punch to win in certain fights. That is the case here and Hunt will catch him with his patented left hook. The 39 year old super Samoan will show that he can still beat the top heavyweights in the world.  

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