Breakdown: Fili vs Mitchell

Mitchell finally gets his camo shorts.

Bryce “Thug Nasty” Mitchell takes on Andre “Touchy” Fili this weekend and it is our marquee bout of the week. Mitchell is coming off an utterly dominant performance against Charles Rosa where he out struck him 60 to 17. The judges scored that contest 30-24 and 30-25 x2 in favor of Mitchell. Thug Nasty only needed three takedowns to completely control Rosa on the ground for 13 minutes and 59 seconds while attempting to submit him repeatedly with one of the most difficult submissions to land, the twister.

On the other side, Andre Fili is coming off a split decision win over Charles Jourdain back in June of this year. While Fili is most known for his striking, he did land five takedowns of his own against Jourdain. “Touchy” Fili boasts a 69% takedown defense for his career, while Mitchell owns a 41% takedown accuracy. I’m a bit surprised that “Thug Nasty” only successfully lands his takedowns 41% of the time. Looking back at Bryce Mitchell’s past performances, I see he struggled to land a single takedown against Bobby Moffett. Let’s take a quick look at Bobby Moffett. He had a one-inch height advantage over Mitchell and for his career he successfully defends 66% of takedowns. But, he does have a few d’arce choke submission victories on his resume so that could have played a factor. Andre Fili will have a two-inch height advantage against Mitchell, and as I mentioned earlier he has a takedown defense of 69%.

If Fili can successfully fend Mitchell off from taking him down, Fili will have the advantage in the striking game. He lands 3.9 significant strikes per minute at a 36% accuracy rate. Thug Nasty averages 2.05 sig. strikes per minute but lands at a 59% rate.

This is such an intriguing matchup. The veteran Fili definitely has the more refined standup, but Bryce Mitchell will not let you go if he gets you to the mat. I’m leaning towards Mitchell by submission as I think he will not stop until he takes Fili down. Previously, the best grappler Fili has most recently faced was Dennis Bermudez, so he will definitely have his hands full with “Thug Nasty” come Saturday night.