UFC 146 Preview

By Adam D. Neal

UFC 146 brings us another stacked fight card on Saturday 27th May as Junior Dos Santos defends his UFC Heavyweight title against Frank Mir.  Since making his UFC debut, against Fabricio Werdum at UFC 90, JDS has looked unstoppable as he has blown through the heavyweight division dominating the majority of opponents with his far superior striking and will be looking to add Mir to his list of victims. 

Former UFC heavyweight title holder Mir has himself been on a fine run, most notably submitting Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira in his last fight whilst in the process breaking his arm!  Focus will be on how Mir handles JDS’ exceptional stand up and what happens when the fight goes to the ground.  Mir has stood the test of time in the heavyweight division and is one of the most well rounded fighters, however in the last few years he has been left wanting when the level of opposition has been stepped up and there are few backing the UFC veteran with the bookmakers having JDS at 1/6 (-600).

Mir was originally scheduled to fight Cain Velasquez for the number 1 contender spot with Alistair Overeem fighting JDS, but a failed drugs test led to Overeem being removed from the fight card.  Given that Overeem had a testosterone to epitestosterone ratio of 14-to-1 when randomly tested, over double the NSAC's allowed T:E ratio of 6-to-1, it is hard to argue with Dana White's stance of removing him from the fight card. 

Elsewhere at UFC 146, Cain Velasquez fights Antonio “Big Foot” Silva.  Velasquez will be looking to cement his spot as the number one contender by disposing of Silva, who is making his debut in the UFC following his move from Strikeforce.

Originally scheduled to fight Mark Hunt, Stefan Struve will now be taking on Lavar Johnson who most recently blew through Pat Barry.  The entertaining Struve will bring a more varied attack than Barry did, and could well upset the odds against Johnson who generally struggles when the fight goes to the ground.
 
Roy Nelson has lost 3 out of his last 4 fights, but those were against world class fighters which Dave Herman isn’t. So Nelson will be looking to put together back to back wins for the first time since 2010.

Many of the matchups on the undercard will have serious repercussions shaping UFC events of the future.  The UK’s Dan Hardy is in a must win fight after going 4-0 and then 0-4 in his 8 UFC matchups.  He is now in a position where he has to win or face the fact that he is not likely to be fighting in the UFC anymore.  Another experienced fighter, Jason Miller, is in a must win fight against CB Dolloway.  Miller had a very bad day at the office against Bisping and came in for a lot of abuse following his less than average display.  On the flip side CB Dolloway will be looking to put Miller into an early retirement, which is a distinct possibility.

Quite rightly Edson Barboza is heavily favoured to beat Jamie Varner, Diego Brandao should get the better of Darren Elkins and Shane Del Roario will be looking to get his career back on track after 15 months out by beating Stipe Miocic both fighters are undefeated at the moment and the bookmakers are favouring Miocic.

Dos Santos (-600 or 1/6) vs Mir (+425 or 17/4)
Cain Velasquez (-450 or 2/9) vs Antonio Big Foot Silva (+333 or 10/3)
Roy Nelson (-275 or 4/11) vs Dave Herman (+210 or 21/10)
Stipe Miocic (-163 or 8/13) vs Shane Del Rosario (125 or 5/4)
*Lavar Johnson Replacing Mark Hunt (-156 or 16/25)  vs Stefan Struve (+110 or 11/10)
Diego Brandao vs Darren Elkins
Edson Barboza (-550 or 2/11) vs Jamie Varner (360 or 18/5)
Jason Miller vs CB Dollaway
Jacob Volkmann vs Paul Sass
Dan Hardy vs Duane Ludwig
Kyle Kingsbury vs Glover Texeira
Mike Brown vs Daniel Pinera

All betting odds have been taken from www.bodog.co.uk unless stated
*Betting odds taken from www.betfair.com