UFC Fight Night 142 Main Card Preview and Best Bets

The bookmakers have the veteran, Mark Hunt, as the betting underdog in this contest currently after he initially opened up as a slight favorite.

It’s clear that the public is leaning toward the younger, more explosive heavyweight athlete in this contest. Willis brings an uncommonly high level of athleticism with him to the cage and stands out from the pack of aging heavyweight fighters who look sluggish with their movement.

But don’t be fooled into thinking just because Hunt is older that he doesn’t pack incredible power in his punches. Hunt still has walkoff knockout potential in his hands, despite not being able to floor Aleksey Oleinik with his best shots, and he also has the superb technique to go with it.

If this fight remains at a distance and Hunt is able to methodically pick apart Willis with long range strikes, this fight has all the makings for a classic victory for the local. However, if Willis bursts forward and overwhelms Hunt, the more realistic outcome is that Hunt won’t be able to hang with the younger fighter in this one.

We would have been all-in on Justin Willis at underdog odds, and we still favor him enough in this contest to confidently back him as an underdog.

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Having competed as a lightweight for many years, a string of defeats encouraged both Jake Matthews and Tony Martin to move up and compete in the 170-pound division, where they are both undefeated after three and two fights respectively.

Matthews has always been considered as a great young talent on the UFC’s roster but it was only until his move up to welterweight that he has taken it up another level and backed his potential with actual results. A split decision win against Bojan Velickovic was enough to move him forward to an excellent Fight of the Night winning effort against Jingliang Li. Most recently, Matthews submitted Shinsho Anzai.

Martin has been equally as terrifying in his new home as a welterweight. A unanimous decision victory over Keita Nakamura was then followed up by a brilliant KO/TKO win against Ryan LaFlare only last month.

Jim Crute is another of the many talented Australian and New Zealand based fighters coming from that way of the world. Crute is a very versatile light heavyweight fighter who can mix it up standing and won the mat. While on the feet, Crute uses his slick kickboxing techniques to pepper his opponent with long range shots before eventualy working them over on the inside. Crute’s primary objective is to get his opponent to the mat and secure top position. Once there, he uses his excellent Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu ability to maintain the position and hammer down heavy shots.

Craig will likely be at a disadvantage on the feet in this contest. The longer and taller fighter, Craig is used to fighting at his own range. While Crute might have difficulty adapting to this range early, we can are predicting that his power will eventually be too much for Craig.

Of course, Crute will need to consider Craig’s tricky submission techniques on the mat, where he has scored two submission victories to date, but elsewhere he should be relatively safe in this contest.

We’re thinking that Crute comes up big in his UFC debut.