Det är snart dags för Stipe Miocic att möta Fabricio Werdum under UFC 198 i Brasilien. Ben Rothwell tror dock att veckan kommer att bli jobbig för Miocic, då han möter en utav landets hjältar och tror att fansen kan ge sig på honom och att detta kan påverka honom psykiskt inför matchen.
Det här berättar Rothwell via ”MMAFighting”:
I feel like Stipe really has a lot going against him. I know he’s fought in Brazil before, but I think this is going to be a whole other animal. He’s not fighting (Fabio) Maldonado. He’s fighting the champion, and he’s fighting the champion on his home turf. I don’t even think Brazil cared about Maldonado when Stipe fought him. No disrespect to him, but it’s not the same as fighting one of their heroes, and Werdum is going to have that crowd the whole week of the fight.
Stipe is going to be dealing with things the week of the fight. Dude, people mess with you, they do when you’re fighting on someone’s turf. You have to be careful where you go buy your coffee, where you go buy your food. At all times, you’ve got to keep looking over your shoulder. That’s just how it is, and in Brazil it’s going to present to the highest extent, in my experience. So Stipe really has a huge hill to climb. He does.
Rothwell tror dock att Miocic kan vinna matchen mot den brasilianske mästaren. Werdum har sedan sin comeback i UFC gått med 6 raka vinster och Miocic har segrat i 8 av sina 10 matcher i organisationen.
On the feet, I think, is where Stipe feels like he’s going to win. I think he sees some of the weaknesses that I see (in Werdum) and he feels he can catch that chin. And he can. That’s how you’re going to win the fight. But if he starts using his Mark Hunt gameplan or he starts pulling Werdum down, obviously that’s going to be tough for him because I haven’t seen much of Stipe’s submission defense and I haven’t really seen him apply many submissions of his own.
Werdum is very crafty and he can even turn submissions on the feet, so he’s got those and I’m not sure how prepared Stipe is for those. That could be the changing factor if Stipe doesn’t start lighting him up on the feet. That, and just how he looks in the first couple minutes is really going to let me know how the whole week of the fight has treated him. If Stipe comes out there and looks not right, kind of slow, then alright, something happened. It’ll be a bummer.
UFC 198 äger rum i Curitiba i Brasilien den 14 maj.
