hi Casey,
we all know that NORMALLY Devon should be the clear favorite of this match since the league that he belongs has been 1 above the league that Michael Todd has belonged in most of his career.here i do not mean disrespect.the league that Devon belongs also has Denis,Pushkar,Brzenk,Bagent (with his old form),Voevoda (before he retired),Ferit (with his old form) and a few others.
but the new version of Michael Todd gave us some signs in last Arnolds,that he is about to belong to that very elite league that i mentioned above.i remember that after John performed below this elite league in 2004 Zloty and 2005 Vegas he gained some weight for 2005 Zloty and performed good but not so great.but it was only beginning and with 2006 Vegas he was right above anyone by almost becoming a heavyweight sized.
Michael's success against Denis had some reasons to be mentioned such as Denis vs Richard wars and Denis being smaller compared to his 2010 Zloty shape.
with the shape that M.Todd was in Arnolds i do not give Michael any chance to beat Devon as a result of this supermatch.but the question is,how much better is Michael now compared to his Arnold shape?
both pullers have similar type of strength with different type of pulling styles.both do not like explosive hitters,both dry the energy of their opponents once they stop their opponents.
Devon has stronger wrist and with better control while Michael has ability of pulling in any position.from this i understand that if Michael somehow unables Devon's total wrist control by keeping him neutral wrist position then Michael has a chance to win the match by forcing Devon to play a game which Michael has played more than anyone else with success.
Dave Randall might have stronger shoulder press than Michael's but no doubt that Michael can apply pressure much longer time with same level of pressure (if he wanted to).
this is Michael's chance to write his name amongst the best super heavyweights in the history.without knowing how much better he is compared to Arnolds it is very hard to guess the result.if he is as good as Arnolds then i believe Devon will win.but if Michael progressed as good as John progressed from 2005 Zloty to 2006 Vegas (gaining weight and becoming solid at that weight are different things) then i believe Michael will have potential to surprise us.it is a very big danger for athletes who pulls with hand control,to be put neutral wrist position by a puller who can pull in any position very effectively.example?
in 2001 Harley Pull Bill Sinks had tougher matches than Cobra had because Bill had to pull a long match against George and went to B side with fouls.he came back to final against Cobra who won all his matches with flash pins.but Bill was able to apply enough of back pressure to keep Cobra's wrist neutral and even Cobra had a better hand position he was not able to control Bill's rotator.and since Bill is used to pulling wars in such positions Cobra slowly lost the control and Bill won.second match was even easier because Cobra was not fresh anymore while it was not a problem for Bill to pull another war.then Bill and Jason Vale were having battles all the time
this may not be the exact case for Devon vs Michael match because even if Devon may not have a wrist control still his general endurance is at least as great as Michael's endurance if not better.but still Devon has been depending on his hand control and if he can not have this control then he may find himself in a game that he has not played for years,while Michael is the MASTER of such game.because of his increased size i believe Michael's horse power is increased and this gives me the idea that Michael has chance to apply his game plan.
from another side muscle endurance and joint endurance are different things.muscle can get pumped quickly while a guy who pulls with his joints can pull much longer time.
so Devon has higher chance in every match Devon having wrist control while Michael has higher chance in every match that he brings Devon into his flat wrist game.it is up to the strength level of the athletes at the start,to determine which game they will play.and if it goes to deep hook then i believe that Michael will bring Devon (in fresh match) near to pad but ending him is again up to the current strength levels of the athletes.JMO
i can not know the name of the game that they will play without knowing their current shapes.