Robert Brant vs. Ryota Murata
Robert Brant won the first meeting with Ryota Murata in Las Vegas last year in a fight where not many people gave him a chance. Brant put in the performance of his career and won a fair unanimous decision. He badly outworked Murata and threw somewhere around a 1000 punches in the fight. He looked like the better fighter in there, no question about it. Since that fight Brant has stayed active and had one more fight against Khasan Baysangurov and stopped him. Baysangurov was unbeaten with 17-0 so the win was impressive. Murata on the other hand, has been inactive since their fight in October last year. This fight is taking place in Murata´s home town and you can expect a big pro Murata crowd. It might prove to be difficult for Brant to get a decision in Japan.
Brant was simply the better fighter all around last time and when you consider in the fact that he can throw a 1000 punches in a fight it is hard to see him losing a decision to Murata. It was no fluke. Murata is a very tough and experienced fighter with Olympic Gold from the London games in 2012. The Gold medal he has is why many people thought he would be able to handle Brant the first time around but it is obvious that he has many holes in his technique. This fight is very likely to go the distance. We are strongly leaning towards Brant to repeat the win from Las Vegas but you just cant be too sure since the fight is taking place in Japan where Murata comes from. The safe Pick is the Over 9.5 Rounds bet.