UFC Middleweight bout: Jason Miller vs. Michael Bisping
Odds: (+140 Miller / -170 Bisping )
Betting Pick: Miller
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After a contentious season of coaching opposite one another on The Ultimate Fighter, Middleweights Jason “Mayhem” Miller and Michael “The Count” Bisping will finally meet in the main event. This is a very interesting matchup for a variety of reason. For one thing, these two seem to have a genuine disdain for another. For another, their styles are contrasting and it will be interesting to see how they match up. Miller is a prolific submission grappler with good technical Muay Thai, and Bisping is a very technical boxer with ever-improving wrestling and fairly good submissions of his own.
Michael “The Count” Bisping made his way into the UFC after winning the third season of The Ultimate Fighter, and has had a very successful career in two weight divisions. He is a very technically proficient striker, but he has very little knockout power. Still, he is quite capable of picking opponents apart with his hands and beating them to the punch consistently. His wrestling has improved greatly over his career, and he actually has rather good jiu-jitsu, although he would be wise to avoid any extended grappling with Miller. Bisping’s best chance to win this fight is to try and maintain range and use his jab to keep Miller at bay and set up his combos. He has enough wrestling to take Miller down and score points, but if he tries to sit inside Miller’s guard he will most likely pay the price.
Jason “Mayhem” Miller is making his return to the UFC, where he formerly competed as a Welterweight. After washing out of the company, he put together very successful stints in Icon Sport and DREAM, fighting a lot of top-notch opponents and enjoying a lot of success. Miller is a very good grappler who has submissions from every position and very good positioning, sweeps, and escapes. His Muay Thai is technically very solid, but he isn’t the most powerful striker in the world. It is unlikely that either one of them is going to knock the other out, but Miller would probably be wise to avoid boxing too much with Bisping, who is the crisper and quicker puncher. Miller might have trouble shooting in for takedowns on Bisping, but on the ground I think his jiu-jitsu is substantially more effective and he should be able to control Bisping relatively easily. If Mayhem can close the distance in the striking game and use the clinch to beat Bisping up and set up takedowns, he will be able to work Bisping over from top position very effectively.
This should be a great fight. Neither guy has much knockout power but both like to let their hands go and both guys are active and effective on the ground. In the end, I think the edge has to go to Miller. Bisping is the more technical striker but Miller is very effective on his feet as well and I think Miller is the better grappler by a substantial margin. Bisping has underrated jiu-jitsu and might be able to survive on the ground, but I think Miller will control the action and earn a unanimous decision.
Prediction: Jason “Mayhem” Miller via Unanimous Decision.
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