UFC Fight Night 85: Super Uso Walks Off
And the king of the walk off KO does it again, this time he even pulled some faces afterwards, as if to say sorry.
Mark Hunt headlined UFC Brisbane and delivered the goods, not only in terms of selling the event leading into it as he smiled, laughed and joked his way through the standard plethora of media obligations, also obviously inside the octagon. Hunt scored a 1st round KO, landing a right-hand to Frank Mir's temple, the only way Hunt was ever really going to win this fight and it panned out how many had expected.
Mir was all action, ducking and rising, evading Hunt's power punches and Mir tried to take down Hunt but Hunt's takedown defence was effective as usual and Hunt pounced at an opportune moment to sent Mir to the canvas.
Brisbane is essentially home-turf for Hunt and the Super Samoan enjoyed great support from the local fans, once again leading an impressive UFC card in Australia. Hunt did what he had to do to maintain some control over his future with the UFC, there was nothing new in his win over Mir as we all know that Hunt is an exciting fighter who serves up KOs and we must now wait to see who/what is next for Hunt.
The UFC heavyweight division is pretty busy at the moment and will be in the near future, which may not be a bad thing for Hunt as he'll sit back and eye up his next opponent. Junior dos Santos will soon fight Ben Rothwell and it's likely that Hunt will fight the winner of this fight, a possible rematch against dos Santos would be an awesome match up.
The key thing for Hunt right now, after that impressive KO is that there's guys ahead of him in the rankings who will be in contention for a title shot before Hunt. Hunt will have to take another fight and win that fight to be in the mix for a title shot, working in Hunt's favour is that you could argue that the heavyweight division might be ripe for the picking and if Hunt's hands are too hot to handle then he could make a very legit title run.
Dan Hooker also tasted victory in a fairly impressive night for the kiwis. Hooker submitted Mark Eddiva via guillotine choke, also in the 1st round as Hooker made a strong case to get bigger fights in the UFC with an efficient win. Hooker is now 3-2 in the UFC and needed this win coming off a unanimous decision loss in his previous fight which essentially means that Hooker is on the up, unlike James Te Huna who must now be considering stepping away from the UFC if he's not sent on his way.
Te Huna suffered a brutal KO at the hands of former NHL hitman Steve Bosse and this was Te Huna's 4th consecutive. It's a bummer for Te Huna who has been the face of the UFC in our part of the world along with Hunt, I don't think it's a coincidence though that Hooker scored an impressive victory at the same event.
The torch has been passed from Te Huna to Hooker and with Robert Whittaker establishing himself as a 'main card' fighter, Hooker will hold it down for Aotearoa in any upcoming UFC event in Australia or Aotearoa.