Preview: UFC Fight Night ‘Barnett vs Nelson’

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Featherweights

Mizuto Hirota (17-7, 0-2 UFC) vs Teruto Ishihara (7-2-1, 0-0 UFC)

THE MATCHUP: The finalists of the “Road to UFC: Japan” tournament collide in a back-to-basics battle of wrestle-boxers.

Perhaps best known as the guy who almost had his arm removed by Shinya Aoki, Hirota is a capable, meat-and-potatoes kickboxer, using a crisp jab, both high and low, to set up his right hand, which he often throws short as a way of entering the clinch, a la Fedor Emelianenko. Hirota likes to mix in the Team Quest inside low kick to get his opponent off-balance and create openings for his other strikes. Hirota is no exceptional wrestler, but he will use the clinch to bully dangerous strikers and drag them to the canvas for some attritional ground-and-pound, as when he fought and defeated Katsunori Kikuno.

An example of the classic sprawl-and-brawl approach, Ishihara can get a bit wild but manages to stay on his feet with a solid counter-wrestling game. He is at his best when he keeps the opponent guessing by throwing quick low kicks and snapping high kicks in conjunction with his powerful hands. Even when he mixes up things, however, Ishihara is mostly a one-and-done striker and tends to rely more on dynamism than skill.

THE ODDS: N/A

THE PICK: Hirota has already washed out of the UFC once, but he has always been a capable mixed martial artist. If anything, it is a lack of next-level, athletic oomph that has kept him from breaking through and becoming something more than a high-level journeyman. While Ishihara has that athleticism, there is little substance to back it up. Despite the fact that he is 10 years older, Hirota’s more consistent approach should be enough to weather a tight early round and find openings in the spaces between Ishihara’s big, obvious attacks. The pick is Hirota by unanimous decision.

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