Felix LaChance: Japan

a lot changed from hunt-lebanner 1 to hunt-lebanner 2. mark lost his jitters. he had fought a few k-1 stars like lebanner, hoost, and sefo. although he lost all those fights he looked more comfortable each time. i think he hurt lebanner's ego at the lottery when he chose the frenchman rather than either aerts or filho. i can imagine jerome training angry for the fight.

hunt-lebanner 2 was interesting in that lebanner was winning on points and mark knocked him out. if we were to use this fight as a predictor of the next one in paris, we would be fair in saying that mark has to knock out jerome or he'll lose on points.

since december 8th last year, even more has changed than between the first two fights. mark has gained weight. he has been flattened in both fights, one to a B class fighter. until these fights, we thought he would never go down. boy! did he prove us wrong! also, this is the first five round match for these two. that is also a factor.

can mark ko jerome? yep.
can jerome ko mark? probably, considering the nakasako and crocop fights.
can jerome beat mark on points? probably.
can mark beat jerome on points? doubtful, unless he makes some changes before the fight.

at this point, i'd say the pressure is on mark. in the last round against mirko, he must have been thinking "if i don't knock this guy out, i lose."

can you imagine what it was like for fighters stepping into the ring with andy or ernesto?