Mark Hunt has always been a big hitter, but even he must’ve been shocked to knock out a man that even Junior dos Santos could not finish off.
The Kiwi Heavyweight was on the cusp of a world title fight after his iconic draw with Antonio Silva in 2014, marking one of the most spectacular UFC fights ever to take place in Australia.
He had been knocked out by Junior dos Santos a year prior to UFC Fight Night 52, where he fought the only man to take the Brazilian legend to the limit.
Mark Hunt was more than aware of how tough this fight would be, although he made it look very easy indeed.
- READ MORE – Mark Hunt flattened a UFC legend in Australia to set up the Brock Lesnar fight that saved UFC 200 card
Mark Hunt took down Roy Nelson with one punch in 2014
One of Hunt’s most spectacular knockout wins came against American fighter Roy Nelson in 2014, doing something nobody expected him to do.
It is not that anybody doubted his punching power, but they believed too strongly in the iron chin of Nelson, who had come up against some of the greatest strikers of all time and come out unscathed.
Most notably, Nelson was the first man to take the legendary Junior dos Santos to the limit, becoming the only person up until that point to go three rounds with the UFC legend.
This put the power of Hunt in doubt, despite the New Zealand MMA legend having won the majority of his fights by knockout up until that point.
Both men knew their part in the fight on September 20, 2014, UFC event. Hunt was coming off the back of his legendary draw with Antonio Silva in Australia, and employed a similar brawling tactic for Nelson.
The two heavyweights slugged it out for two rounds, both eating some heavy punches but remaining on their feet in an exciting matchup.
However, Hunt did the impossible in the second round and knocked the iron-chinned Nelson out with a single uppercut, folding him in half as he crashed to the mat.
He coolly walked away from the man after the big punch, earning a fantastic win over a seemingly indestructible fighter.
Mark Hunt earned a UFC Heavyweight title fight with this win, but it did not go well
That victory over Nelson was so impressive that it earned Hunt his world title shot in the UFC.
The spectacular knockout saw him thrust into the UFC 180 main event, where he battled Fabricio Werdum for the vacant UFC Heavyweight title.
While he would have hoped it would go similarly to his previous fight, Hunt was outclassed and outgunned by the dangerous Werdum, who knocked him down with a flying knee in the second round.
The referee stopped the fight after a vicious ground-and-pound attack, which ended Hunt’s one and only shot at becoming UFC Heavyweight champion.