UFC 120: Breaking Down Mike Pyle vs John Hathaway

Added on Oct 14, 2010 by John Petit in

UFC & MMA

This will easily be one of the most of exciting fights on the card, and if Condit/Hardy wasn’t on this card, it would be a lock for Fight of the night honors. With Michael Bisping and Dan Hardy not becoming the champions everyone predicted the would be, its John Hathaway who now has a chance at becoming the British superstar. After dismantling Diego Sanchez, he has a chance to put his name on the map, and launch his way into contender talks. He was supposed to face Dong Hyun Kim, but he was forced out with an injury, and Pyle stepped up. John Hathaway is no joke, he is 14-0 in his career, and has five fights in the UFC already. He has heavy hands, and the ability to ground and pound the spirit out of just about everyone he has faced so far. The biggest criticism of British fights is that they don’t have a wrestling game, but John put a hole in that one when he zero-summed Rick Story’s wrestling early, in his UFC career.

Mike Pyle seems to have an uphill battle in this fight. Pyle is a streaky fighter, and is currently 2-2 in the UFC, but 20-7-1 over all. The pattern since he debuted in the ufc has been win one, and lose one. The most notable, with respects to this match up, is his loss to Jake Ellenberger. Hathaway is better then Ellenberger in all the areas he used to defeat Pyle. This will make for a tough match up. He can not expect to fight off his back with John, because he will get eaten alive. Pyle’s real shot at winning this fight will be to handle business standing up, because I don’t think he has the Jiu-Jitsu to control John long enough to beat him up from mount.

I’m having a hard time figuring out how Pyle wins this fight. At worst Ellenberger is a poor mans Hathaway, and Jake had no problem handling his business against Mike. John willwill force Pyle to fight the fight he wants to fight. If Hathaway wants to make this wrestling match; then it will b a wrestling match. If he wants to make this a kick boxing clinic, then thats how the fight will go. Can Pyle win this fight? Of course he can, but making a prediction requires me to analyze past fights, and make a prediction based on the information I have. I see Hathaway making this a kick boxing fight, and I see him tagging Mike Pyle mid round two and then finishing him from the mount. The hitman will finish this fight in the second round by TKO.