Lucy.....I think Oliver base his decision on facts....It's true. On book Jerome Le Banner should win. He has height, power and the experience. To me however, I would have to go with Mark. Anyway Oliver my friend...this is just my 2cent piece. OK!ok!...maybe I am biased a little bit cause I want Mark to win...but 95% of my decision to pick Mark comes from a coaches point of view....

It's true that Le Banner has improved about 25% since their last bout, but I think Mark has improved 125% since their last bout. And I'm not just talking about techniques but confidence also. I agree that Le Banner has the Power to knock anybody out, but we're not talking about just power here. If Le Banner going to use his stalk walking in style against Mark.....ummmmmmmm??? I think it will be a big mistake....We are not talking about someone like Hoost who can frustrate a smaller guy and force him to make mistake than set up the angle to intercept his technique to double the power. We're talking about a pretictable big strong guy walking in. He has been doing that in the last 6 years...Do you think he will change for this particular fight? Maybe and maybe not. In my opinion, Le Banner may have improves his punching power, but style and habits hasn't changed. On the other hand, the last time they meet, it was Mark's first appearance in Japan and may have felt a bit overrawed. This time he is more confidence. There are lots of good reasons why. Some of the reasons I'm going to put down maybe debatable to others but it's only my opinion. No doubt some of these things maybe running through Mark's head to prepare himself mentally better for this fight:

(a) Mark can take a much better shot than Le Banner can. It shows when he took some good shots from Ernesto Hoos without blinks. These same shots from Hoost had knocked out Le Banner twice.

(b) Mark took Ray Sefo's hardest shots with his hands down and asking Ray for more. This was the same Sefo who knocked Le Banner out cold for over 5 mins.

(c) He was a bit nervous when they first met, but now gained lots of experienced.

(d) Mark took the last fight in 2 weeks noticed and out of shape and still end up at the final. Hape will make sure that Mark is 150% fit for this one.

(e) Le Banner is a walking in fighter. Mark don't need to worry about range. If they both land shots at the same time.....I know who's gonna go....It won't be Mark. He has a coconut head...LOL!

(f) Even when Mark is not fully fit, his workrate still higher than Le Banner and for some misteries reasons recovers pretty well...Imagine when he does fully fit for this one.

I think there is something about Mark which which lots of people dont understand. He has no fear of either losing or winning but willing to give it a 100% whenever he hops in. When he lost to Peter Graham here in Auckland this year....He didn't jump up and down...He just took it like a man and carries on. He just go out there and fight. Mark is the real Rocky story of kick boxing. He came out of nowhere. He lost a few fights and takes fights on hours noticed and yet, he still hasn't let the promoter down. I had the pleasure of working on Mark's corner in one of his last minute noticed. I said to Lucy and Mark than when he fought Nathan Briggs...Do you know what you have here?....anyway, that's another story. Things changed for Mark since the K-1 Oceania starts. I know this is off the topic a bit, but one day you will see the best fight ever when Mark Hunt will fight one of our boys...His name is Tristam "The Twister" His style is very similar to Mark but shorter and heavier....if fact, he looks distustingly flabby when he hops in the ring but has the same mentality as Mark and can push his workrate amazingly high.....He's not a world beater but I'm talking strictly about matching...It maybe not happen but, wouldn't that be exciting Lucy? He!he!he!