Mark Hunt brutally KO’s Sonny Bill Williams in vintage ‘Super Samoan’ fashion – Boxing Highlights

Mark HuntMark Hunt

Mark Hunt

At 48 years of age, Mark Hunt continues to defy the odds and make statements, having scored a vicious KO over the undefeated 9-0 (before the bout) boxer Sonny Bill Williams.

With this victory, it begs the question of what is next for Hunt. It seems that no matter what that may be, Hunt will always be an underdog looking to spoil someone’s night and after last night’s finish, it seems it could be a popular occurrence.

We’ve had the pleasure of seeing ‘Mark Hunt ‘The Super Samoan’ competing since before 2000. In 2010 we saw the UFC debut of Hunt where he created moments such as his KO against Frank Mir, Derrick Lewis and Antonio Silva. By the end of his UFC tenure, Mark Hunt finished 8-8-1 within the promotion having finished with a 88% finish rate.

So far during Mark Hunt’s boxing career, he has seen himself accumulate a record of 1-2-1 with his previous bout ending in a UD loss at the Bankwest Stadium against Paul Gallen. The common trend of these bouts has been Hunt coming in as an underdog, but as the old saying goes “every underdog has its day” with Hunt proving this emphatically by creating another viral finish.

In the lead-up to this fight, Mark Hunt was a +340 underdog, who was seen as just another stepping stone for current boxer and former rugby legend Sonny Bill Williams. A large majority of people were questioning this bout with Hunt being over a decade older than his opponent with the buzz around the fight being quite low up until the KO victory.

It’s safe to say that Mark Hunt doesn’t look finished yet, with 2023 looming it leaves a lot of intrigue as to how this next year looks for Hunt. Could it be a continuation of what we just saw? Or will this be a flash-in-the-pan moment that MMA fans can look back on and still be shocked by how Mark Hunt pulled off such a victory at 48 after years of competing in combat sports?

What did you think of Mark Hunt’s underdog win?

Mark Hunt Discusses One Of The Lowest Moments In His Life

Popular UFC heavyweight Mark Hunt has been there and done it in the combat sports world. From winning the K-1 Grand Prix, fighting and beating some top names in the Pride FC years, and joining the UFC to score some huge wins against all the odds, ‘The Super Samoan’ has one punched his way in

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Popular UFC heavyweight Mark Hunt has been there and done it in the combat sports world. From winning the K-1 Grand Prix, fighting and beating some top names in the Pride FC years, and joining the UFC to score some huge wins against all the odds, ‘The Super Samoan’ has one punched his way in to our hearts and minds. Unlike during his spectacular trademark finishes, Hunt has refused to walk away from the sport, even after being offered $450,000 by UFC president Dana White to retire before his first fight for the promotion.

His humble attitude and extremely likeable character sees ‘Hunto’ rise in popularity consistently, and his victories in the UFC octagon speak for themselves. Stunning knockout wins over Stefan Struve, Cheick Kongo, Roy Nelson, Frank Mir, Chris Tuchscherer and Bigfoot Silva have seen the fan friendly heavyweight come close to a title shot, but he is yet to reach that goal. But things haven’t always been this good for ‘The Super Samoan,’ as you’ll find out during this harrowing tale.

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To the viewer it may have looked as though it was all gravy for Mark Hunt during his time in Pride FC, especially during his win streak that saw victories over Mirko Cro Cop and Wanderlei Silva. As it often happens, things weren’t all that great for Hunt at the time, as he discloses in his new book available on Amazon ‘Mark Hunt Born To Fight.’ Props to the Reddit forums for the quotes:

Mark Hunt vs. Fedor Emelianenko, 2006:

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I was getting a little run together in Pride, feeling like myself again. I was regaining faith in my hands and my ability to drop whomever they put in front of me.

Unbeknown to me, when I’d fought Mirko I was in a title eliminator. Whoever took that fight was to be fighting Fedor for the Pride belt. After the Nishijima fight I was called to a hotel suite, and when I saw the Russian champ coming out of the room as I was about to go in, I started to glean what was going on. I had a little chit-chat with Fedor in the hallway and asked him what they had for me.

He shrugged and said, ‘They had this for me,’ nodding to his bag.

When I got into the room I found Sakakibara-san, a few guys who looked like muscle and a Korean guy who acted like he was in charge. Also in the room was a table struggling under the weight of many giant piles of crisp currency, stacked neatly.

‘How are you, Mark?’ Sakakibara-san asked.

‘I’d be doing better if I had some of that,’ I said, pointing to the table.

‘Do you want some? Would you like us to pay you in cash? We can if you like, Mark.’

No shit. They could have paid me for my next ten fights and it wouldn’t have made a dent in that pile. I declined, though. The Russians all liked to be paid in cash but I figured it would be a pain trying to explain to Aussie Customs why I was bringing a big bag of foreign currency home.

In that hotel room I got a little preview of the future downfall of Pride, but at the time I didn’t concern myself with any of the organisation’s shady, behind-the-scenes dealings. I only concerned myself with the guy in front of me, and in that hotel suite they told me that soon the guy in front of me was going to be exactly the right bloke – the world’s biggest badass. Well, second biggest anyway…

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Breaking Down Mark Hunt’s Monster KO Against Frank Mir

See how Mark Hunt perfectly set up another one of his vintage knockouts… UFC heavyweight veteran Mark Hunt did it again, this time the victim of his trademark walk off knockout was fellow mixed martial arts legend Frank Mir. The two faced off in the main event of UFC Fight Night 85 in Brisbane, Australia

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See how Mark Hunt perfectly set up another one of his vintage knockouts…

UFC heavyweight veteran Mark Hunt did it again, this time the victim of his trademark walk off knockout was fellow mixed martial arts legend Frank Mir. The two faced off in the main event of UFC Fight Night 85 in Brisbane, Australia last night (Saturday March 19, 2016), and it went down exactly how many of us had predicted. It only took one punch from Hunt to end the fight, as the former K-1 champion and Pride FC striker put the screws to the former UFC heavyweight champion with a catastrophic overhand right.

For Frank Mir, it was really just another example f why he should retire. In frustrating but not uncommon fashion, the world renowned grappling wizard tested his stand up against the much more accomplished puncher. Where Shane Carwin, Junior dos Santos and many others have also succeeded, ‘The Super Samoan’ finished it half way through the first round, but it wasn’t just a wild punch.

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So let’s break down exactly what happened. A seasoned striker like Mark Hunt, with his brutal fight finishing power, is always going to be an extremely dangerous opponent. But, as famed boxing trainer Teddy Atlas once said, you need to have the right missile to get that bomb to it’s location. What he’s saying is that power is great, but if you can’t land it, you won’t be able to utilize it in a fight. To be able to get that power to it’s desired place, in the case of Hunt vs. Mir that’s the head, there are a number of options for the offensive striker; You can use feints, footwork, head movement, combination punching that ends in the big bomb, countering, using your opponent’s movement, throwing unusual strikes or a combination of these techniques. For all these methods, timing is key.

In the case of Hunt, as we’ve seen in many fights during his illustrious career, he used a combination of feints and his opponents reactions to them in order to land his fight finishing bomb with some added movement of his own and of course split second and precise timing.

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