was dec 8th a fluke?

i agree. no, it wasn't. he won fair and square. then again mcdonald knocked out mirko fair and square and thompson knocked out abidi fair and square. that's the name of the game.

does mark have a weakness to high kicks?

perhaps. he bobs his head around a bit and against both nakasako and mirko his head was moving in the opposite direction of the kick. impact! that's how bernard knocked out stan. and the opening was there for him to do it against sefo too. i'm sure jerome's trainers see this and are preparing for him to capitalize on it.

is mark a big match fighter? perhaps. is paris a big match then? no. he's doesn't face elimination yet. is mark a five round fighter? not really but luckily neither is jerome. sorry lollo, this doesn't look like it is in marks favor. if anything is going to increase 300% it is his weight.

overnight stardom syndrom? that must be where all your friends convince you that as long as you are happy you can gain as much weight as you want. even on this board people said that his obesity was part of the winning combination.

jerome requested the bout? that makes sense. he probably took a dive against yasuda to get the rematch so quickly.

outside the ring the pressure is about equal. jerome must win back his number one status. mark must make up for the horrible performances in the last two fights. in the ring, jerome has a better chance of being knocked out but mark isn't that safe anymore. if the fight goes to the scorecards, mark is in trouble.

one thing that is in mark's favor is that it is easier to corner jerome than the fast footed mirko. lebanner could never move around the ring that much.

here are some stats from the hunt-crocop fight.
percentage of attacks-
initiated by mark: 37%
initiated by mirko: 63%

percentage of mirko's attacks that were met with counter attacks by mark: 18%
percentage of mark's attacks that were met with counter attacks by mirko: 22%

if you watch the fight you'll see that when mirko isn't punching back he is holding and smothering mark's attack. quite often mark neither fought back nor held. he just took it.