Todd Duffee Favourite To Beat Former Heavyweight Champion Frank Mir
Published on July 12th, 2015 9:33 pm ESTRaw power vs caginess. Experience vs youth.
Frank Mir will be taking on Todd Duffee in the main event of UFC Fight Night 71 on July 15th, 2015. The Heavyweight tilt is quite a fascinating one, as Duffee is raw, unharnessed power and explosiveness, while Frank Mir is a cagey veteran who is excellent on the ground and a former Heavyweight champion.
Duffee has had an unusual career path over the past couple of years. After notching one of the fastest knockouts of all time at UFC 102, Duffee announced himself as a future contender in the Heavyweight division. All of his momentum and hype went up in flames, however, after he was caught by Mike Russow in one of the greatest comebacks in UFC history.
Duffee, thanks to a dispute with the UFC, soon found himself out of the promotion and fighting overseas. Duffee was destroyed by Alistair Overeem in just 19 seconds on December 31st, 2010. After being diagnosed with some health issues, Duffee returned to action in April of 2012 and notched a big win over Neil Grove. Duffee then returned to the UFC where he notched victories over Philip De Fries and Anthony Hamilton.
Frank Mir, on the other hand, recently snapped a four fight losing streak after he knocked out Antonio "Bigfoot" Silva in the main event of UFC Fight Night: Bigfoot vs Mir in February of 2015. Much like his first fight against Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Mir defeated Silva using crisp boxing and nice footwork. Mir, in his post-fight speech, declared that he was back.
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Frank Mir has had troubles dealing with strong Heavyweights in the past (Lesnar, Shane Carwin). Will Duffee be able to push Mir up against the fence and chop him down with strikes, similar to what happened in his tilts against Josh Barnett and Shane Carwin? What happens if the fight goes to the ground? Who has the better gas tank?
This is really a fascinating fight.
Let's look at the betting odds for Mir/Duffee as of this moment:
Frank Mir, 2.50
Todd Duffee, 1.53
According to these odds, Mir has about a 40% chance of winning next Saturday night, while Duffee has a 65.36% chance of winning.
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Who are you picking to win? Will the veteran win, or will Duffee be able to come out on top thanks to his power and explosiveness?
