The Doggy Bag: UFC 119 Edition

Everyone answers to somebody, so we, the staff at Sherdog.com, have decided to defer to our readers.

“The Doggy Bag” gives you the opportunity to speak about what’s on your mind from time to time.

Our reporters, columnists, radio hosts, and editors will chime in with our answers and thoughts, so keep the emails coming.

This week, readers write in to discuss the matchups of UFC 119: Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic vs. Frank Mir and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira vs. Ryan Bader. Also in this UFC 119 edition, Jordan Breen examines the Octagon debut of former K-1 World GP winner Mark Hunt.

---

I’m extremely pumped for the UFC 119 main event. Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic is due for a title run, and Frank Mir has showed that he’s most dangerous following a loss. How do you see this fight playing out? I think Mir will suck Cro Cop into his guard and put him in danger early. As the fight goes on, Cro Cop’s conditioning will prevail, and he’ll knock out Mir with his underrated straight left. Am I wrong?
-- Dale, from Miami

Brian Knapp, associate editor: None of us would wish injury on the great Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Mir’s original opponent, but this matchup appears far more intriguing on the surface. Whoever coined the phrase “styles make fights” might have had this one in mind.

One of the heavyweight division’s scariest ground fighters (see Tim Sylvia’s arm, Cheick Kongo’s neck), Mir has not fought since he succumbed to strikes from Shane Carwin at UFC 111 in March and has never lost back-to-back fights. However, all five of his defeats have resulted from strikes, four of them inside one round. Carwin, Brandon Vera, Ian Freeman and Marcio Cruz all punished Mir quickly and took him out of his element. Therein lies Cro Cop’s path to victory: pressure and volume.

For all his deserved notoriety as a stand-up fighter, the Croatian has lost via traditional submission only once -- to Nogueira in November 2003 -- in his 37-fight career, this despite encounters with former Pride Fighting Championships heavyweight titleholder Fedor Emelianenko, one-time UFC heavyweight champion Josh Barnett (three times), Japanese icon Kazushi Sakuraba and 1992 Olympic gold medalist Hidehiko Yoshida, among others. His takedown defense has also been vastly underappreciated by the masses.

Obviously, something has to give. Despite his declining skills, I favor Cro Cop slightly in this one. I think if Mir wins, he wins it early. The longer the fight goes, the more it favors the 2006 Pride open weight grand prix winner, simply because it’s only a matter of time before one his strikes gets through Mir’s defenses and short circuits his plans. Mir has proven a strong front runner throughout his career, but once he absorbs significant damage, especially from a proven finisher like Cro Cop, the odds begin to skew against him. I like Filipovic by late first-round, early second-round TKO.