Mark Hunt isn’t playing around.
The New Zealand native made the biggest impression of his UFC career Saturday night, both literally and figuratively, when he knocked out 7-foot-tall Stefan Struve with a brutal two-punch combo in the third round of their co-main event bout at UFC on Fuel 8.
The victory at Japan’s Saitama Super Arena was Hunt’s fourth in a row. After spending a year on the sidelines — Hunt vs. Struve was initially slated for UFC 146 — the 38-year old Hunt doesn’t want to wait around much longer.
“I’d like to fight as soon as possible,” Hunt said at the post-fight press conference. “Top five or whatever, man.”
The Hunt-Struve fight’s finish was a bit strange, as it appeared referee Herb Dean wanted the bout to continue after Hunt dropped Struve. After the fight, Struve tweeted “I wanted Herb to take the tooth out of my cheek and continue but then it turned out my jaw was broken.”
Hunt gave his version of events at the press conference.
“[Dean] told me to keep going, so I went in to try and finish it,” he said. “I don’t know, whatever, I was kind of banged up, you know?”
Either way, Hunt was happy just to be able to get back into the Octagon and figure out an opponent who had over a foot of height on him.
“Look man. after a year without fighting, it was hard to get somewhere even close to Stefan,” Hunt said. “It’s hard to gauge someone especially with a year off, and timing, and everything was off. … Timing and a few other things, it went right.”