Weight Class: Heavyweight Godzilla vs. King Kong. Flip a coin. This is one of the hardest fights to call in years in the UFC. There are very few areas where one of these fighters has a clear advantage. Probably the only one, in fact, is on the ground - Roy Nelson has a black belt in Jiu-jitsu. Mark Hunt doesn't have much of a ground game. If Nelson can take this fight to the ground, therefore, he has a clear cut advantage. He probably won't even try however. Roy Nelson is the people's champ - he wants to entertain by knocking guys head's off with his overhand right. In that sense, Mark Hunt is the people's champ as well - like Nelson, he wants to entertain with heavy hands. Both these fighters have excellent chins as well. Nelson has never been stopped in the UFC, and his only stoppage was questionable. He took every shot Junior Dos Santos could throw at him, to the point that JDS looked confused as to why the Homer Simpson-esque figure in front of him would not fall down after being hit repeatedly in the face with multiple punishing blows. You almost expected him to ask his coach to run and get the kitchen sink between rounds so he could hit him with that too. Dos Santos did manage to knock out Mark Hunt in their recent meeting, but it's one of the few times in his career that has happened, and it took a surprise spinning heel kick from JDS to do it. There's a chance these guys stand in front of each other and punch for twenty-five minutes Saturday. There's a chance one of them gets knocked out in the first round. Hunt could be the one to conquer Nelson's legendary chin. Nelson could knock out Hunt, or submit him. The crowd will be behind Hunt, as "Hunto" was a beloved figure in Japan in his Pride days, but that's about the only advantage he has. In the end, Nelson has a slight edge, so we're going to call Nelson by TKO in the second, but it's a slight edge. Really slight. If you're a betting man, put all your money on "this will be a violent fight" and stop there.
Primarily covering the sport of MMA from Ontario, Canada, Jay Anderson has been writing for various publications covering sports, technology, and pop culture since 2001. Jay holds an Honours Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the University of Guelph, and a Certificate in Leadership Skills from Humber College.
