Preview: UFC Fight Night ‘Hunt vs. Mir’

Middleweights

James Te Huna (16-8) vs Steve Bosse (10-2)

THE MATCHUP: Te Huna and Bosse both represent a worrying combination of inactivity and unreliability.

Te Huna was in the midst of an impressive light heavyweight run when he was dominated by Glover Teixeira in May 2013. There is no shame in losing to a top contender, but that turn of bad luck quickly became a pattern. Te Huna went on to lose his next two fights. The men who beat him, Mauricio Rua and Nate Marquardt, came in on losing streaks and quickly resumed them after stopping the Australian. Bosse has not been doing so great, either. In 2011, he beat Houston Alexander, and it took him nearly two years to enter the cage again and more than two years after that to make his UFC debut. In Bosse’s first Octagon appearance, Thiago Santos spent 28 seconds eying him up before knocking him senseless with a kick. Neither Bosse nor Te Huna has won a fight since the start of 2013.

Bosse has faced no one on the caliber of Te Huna’s opponents, except perhaps Santos: That loss looks a lot better given the improvements Santos showed in his recent victory over Elias Theodorou. Still, while Te Huna was learning the MMA ropes, Bosse was playing hockey. He has had neither the time nor the experience of his opponent. Nonetheless, Bosse is not a bad mixed martial artist. He moves fairly well, hides his powerful punches behind feints and fakes and even throws in combination -- and not just the grip-the-collar-and-swing kind you see in hockey.

Te Huna, like Bosse, is largely right-hand dependent, though the combinations which follow flow a little more smoothly. He is quick for a man of his size and throws a great deal of volume. Te Huna set the light heavyweight striking record in his first-round assault of Joey Beltran. Like Bosse, however, Te Huna’s skill set is almost entirely offensive. He looks like a fantastic boxer until he meets an opponent with the confidence, speed or power to engage, at which point Te Huna gets hit; and because he throws so much volume, he puts himself in the line of fire more frequently than Bosse.

Neither Bosse nor Te Huna is particularly dangerous on the ground. Te Huna’s jiu-jitsu is almost certainly better but not good enough to warrant the confidence with which he commits himself on the ground. Bosse’s grappling is totally geared toward protecting himself and escaping to the feet, which suits his strengths, even if his technique is subpar.

THE ODDS: Te Huna (-255), Bosse (+215)

THE PICK: Given his long layoff and the fact that it occurred in his UFC debut, we can blame Bosse’s knockout loss on ring rust or nerves. The circumstances surrounding Te Huna’s string of defeats suggest something else, however. Te Huna has been active in MMA since 2003. Though he suffered no knockout losses in the first 10 years of his career, he did absorb plenty of damage. He was dropped by Ryan Jimmo, knocked out by Rua and floored by Marquardt before being forced to tap. It seems likely that, at 34 years old, Te Huna just does not have what it takes to trade shots anymore. In a contest of two such similar fighters, it makes sense to pick the one who has accumulated less punishment. In this case, that is Bosse. Slim as his chances seem, durability is the one thing a fighter cannot do without. The pick is Bosse by first-round KO.

Next Fight » Rawlings vs. Ham