A battle between two big heavyweights will headline the UFC’s next trip to Australia. According to Neil Rooke from Combat Press, Mark Hunt will take on Stipe Miocic in a five-round heavyweight main event at UFC Fight Night 65, which is set to take place May 10 at Adelaide Entertainment Centre in Adelaide, Australia. The UFC has not confirmed the matchup yet, but Rooke’s sources have been rock-solid in the past and it’s a matter of time until the UFC announces the bout. Since this event will be UFC Fight Night 65, the recently-announced Philippines event, which features a five-round featherweight main event between Frankie Edgar and Urijah Faber, will now be called UFC Fight Night 66, so just keep that in mind going forward. As far as Hunt vs. Miocic goes, this is obviously a great fight for the fans as it pits two of the most exciting heavyweights in the entire UFC against one another. Hunt is coming off of a devastating TKO loss to Fabricio Werdum at UFC 180 that cost him the chance to become the UFC heavyweight champion, but it’s a fight he was doing very well in until he got clipped by a flying knee and finished. Although he is 40 years old now — and will be 41 when this fight with Miocic takes place — Hunt is still one of the top heavyweights in the sport and a win over Miocic would immediately vault him back into title contention. As for Miocic, he is coming off of a 2014 Fight of the Year candidate against Junior dos Santos at UFC on FOX 13, a fight he lost via unanimous decision. However, while the scorecards were wide, most observers who saw the bout thought it was extremely close and competitive and there’s no doubt Miocic did better than the 4-to-1 betting line on JDS indicated. Miocic showed he is durable enough and has the cardio to go five rounds and if JDS didn’t have an iron chin it’s likely Miocic would have found a stoppage in the fight. As far as how these two match up goes, it’s pretty clear what both men want to do here. With Hunt, he’ll be looking for the knockout blow to put Miocic away. Miocic has only lost via TKO once, to Stefan Struve, but he’s been rocked before in other fights and Hunt certainly has the capabilities of finishing him. As for Miocic, he will look to outpoint Hunt on the feet and use his footwork to move out of the way of Hunt’s attacks, and considering Hunt has been knocked out in two of his last four fights, Miocic may even look for the knockout blow himself. This is a close fight. Hunt can knock anyone out, but Miocic is younger, faster, and has knockout power himself. I’m expecting a close line here, but I have to favor Miocic in this one, although just slightly.
