When Dana White announced back in 2010 that Heavyweight Mark Hunt would be coming to the UFC the MMA world scoffed. Hunt was on a five losing streak and nobody gave him a chance to succeed in the sport’s premier promotion. Giving up a first round submission to Sean McCorkle at UFC 119 he confirmed his critics doubts. But since then, he has been on a tear that no one saw coming.
He capped off his current 4-fight win streak Saturday night with a 3rd round KO of top 10 big man Stefan Struve. Struve was significantly favored to beat Hunt and it was considered almost a surety if he got him to the ground. But Mark rose to the occasion and avoided Struve’s sub attempts and even put Skryscraper in some bad positions of his own. Finally, in the last round of the fight, Hunt unleashed thunderous punches that had Struve backpedaling. The fight-ending shot put Stefan down and broke his jaw in two.
Hunt was out for a year going into the fight and he told MMA Junkie that the layoff definitely effected him, but now that he’s back he’s looking at the top of the division for his next fight:
I’d like to fight as soon as possible. (A) top five (opponent) or whatever, man.
Look man, after a year without fighting, it was hard to get someone even close to Stefan, (and I was) working with someone who wasn’t even 6-foot-8,” he said. “It was hard to gauge him, especially after a year off. My timing and everything was off. Like I said, I was willing to go anywhere. It was fine. Just my timing and a few other things went right.
It’s hard to say who and when Hunt will be scheduled to fight next as most of the elite Heavyweights are already scheduled to fight each other at UFC 160 in May.
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