This evening (Sat., April 28, 2018), Bellator MMA will put on one of their biggest fights ever when legendary former PRIDE FC champion Fedor Emelianenko faces former UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir in the main event of Bellator 198 from the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Ill. Although it’s clear that both aging superstars are past their athletic primes, […]
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This evening (Sat., April 28, 2018), Bellator MMA will put on one of their biggest fights ever when legendary former PRIDE FC champion Fedor Emelianenko faces former UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir in the main event of Bellator 198 from the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Ill.
Although it’s clear that both aging superstars are past their athletic primes, it’s still an intriguing match-up that ha until this point been unable to be booked due to Emelianenko’s foregoing of the UFC.
Mir will make his Bellator debut tonight, however, and the winner of the anticipated showdown will advance to the next round of the Bellator Heavyweight Grand Prix in addition to owning the bragging rights of being one of the best heavyweights to ever compete in MMA.
It’s an intriguing fight with a ton of question marks and not exactly many answers from both fighters. Without further ado, LowKick’s Mike Drahota and Matt McNulty predicted the outcome of tonight’s potentially tumultuous Bellator 198 main event.
Check out our picks right here:
Mike Drahota:
I truly can’t come up with a concrete pick one way or the other here, as Fedor has looked absolutely shot for a long while without a true victory under the bright lights since his huge knockout of Brett Rogers under the Strikeforce banner in 2009. Yes, it’s been almost eight years since he picked up a high-profile win – and it’s a stretch to say Rogers really qualifies as that.
True, he won two straight since returning in December 2015 before Matt Mitrione knocked him silly at Bellator 180 last summer, but those are hardly high-quality wins. “The Last Emperor” is undoubtedly a legend of mixed martial arts and arguably the greatest heavyweight of all-time. If he can still win at this level remains to be seen, however.
The same could be said for Mir, who has been out of action since Marl Hunt turned his lights off in March 2016. After that, Mir served a two-year suspension from USADA for testing positive for a banned substance. He’s also lost six of his last eight fights, with three of those coming by knockout.
Not to pile on these two heavyweight greats at all, but the recent facts of the matter simply show they may not have much left in the tank.
Thankfully, the same could be said for both men, so we could see a surprisingly good fight tonight. If Fedor can unload his patented rushing strikes early, then the knockout-susceptible Mir could be in for a short night. But he’ll clearly be looking to take the fight to the ground where he does his best, and Emelianenko has shown he can be finished on the ground in his fights with Fabricio Werdum, Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva, and Dan Henderson.
I think Mir may see some rough moments early but will ultimately be able to use his superior conditioning to wear Fedor down and finish him on the mat.
Prediction: Frank Mir def. Fedor Emelianenko via R2 TKO (ground strikes)
Matt McNulty:
With a timeless heavyweight collision like this where time builds to a crescendo, there is always going to be people watching.
Sure, it would probably have been better if it somehow came about 10 years ago, but we got it when we got it, and that’s fair enough.
Mir looked absolutely shredded at the weigh-ins, which looked like it was in a hotel conference room. Against Mark Hunt in his last fight, he appeared chubby and listless. Two years later, Mir’s looking like he did from his better days, and that makes for an extremely dangerous man.
Big punchers have usually had success against Mir. Shane Carwin, Junior Dos Santos, Hunt… the list goes on. I think Fedor pulls off a knockout finish tonight for his first big victory in years. Mir may have his moments tonight, but if Emelianenko has learned from the Werdum fight, it’s that he shouldn’t play in a dangerous BJJ players guard.
Expect to see Fedor glorify himself and the nation of Russia in Chicago tonight.
Prediction: Fedor Emelianenko def. Frank Mir via R! TKO (punches)
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