Alex Hernandez and Olivier Aubin-Mercier will both be making their Octagon return on the heels of their first knockout in the UFC. Granted, Aubin-Mercier’s knockout came in his ninth UFC appearance while Hernandez’s came in his debut, but all the same, both fighters are looking, and predicting, to pick up their second UFC KO before the clock ends during their fight this weekend in Calgary.
“It’s going to be two minutes,” Hernandez estimated to MMA Weekly regarding the length of his upcoming bout. “I’m not going to overthink anything. All my tools are sharpened. I know his game. I know what he likes to go for. I’m not going to overthink any positions. I’m not going to roll over to adjust my strategy or game to accommodate Mercier.
“I’m not overthinking an attack of his, the defense of his. Should he present an obstacle, I’ll overcome it, but I believe I can finish this fight in two minutes.”
Aubin-Mercier agrees that Alex Hernandez will present danger in the first round, but he does not envision quite the same ending as Hernandez does:
“I think the first round is going to be a tough one. And in the third round, I’m going to win,” Aubin-Mercier told Bloody Elbow. After predicting a third-round KO of Hernandez during the interview, Aubin-Mercier demonstrated a new-found confidence in an area where he was not always proficient:
“Striking was not my strength,” said Aubin-Mercier. “So I do a lot of it. And my goal is to be at the top, so I have to be good everywhere. My striking is getting a lot better than before and for sure the KO on Dunham shows it.”
Do you think either fighter will pick up the KO they predict?
