UFC heavyweight Hunt walks off after early stoppage of Mir in Australia
Heavyweight Mark Hunt typically enters his fights looking for one-punch knockouts.
He found it pretty early on Saturday night when he knocked out Las Vegan Frank Mir 3:01 into the second round of the main event of an Ultimate Fighting Championship card in Brisbane, Australia.
It was the second straight first-round knockout victory for Hunt, a New Zealand native who lives and trains in Australia.
After shrugging off a few early takedown attempts by Mir, Hunt blasted him with a big right hand behind the ear and simply walked away as the referee determined MIr couldn’t continue.
“There’s always a winner and a loser. One of us had to lose tonight,” Hunt said in the cage after the fight. “Frank is a good dude. I respect him very much.”
Mir, a Bonanza High School alum and former heavyweight champion, has now lost two consecutive fights and six of his last eight. He has been knocked out three times during that stretch.
Six of Hunt’s seven victories since returning to the UFC in 2010 have come by knockout.
Also on the UFC Fight Night 85 card, welterweight Neil Magny survived a thrashing from notoriously fast-starter Hector Lombard in the first round before rallying for a third-round knockout victory.
Lombard, fighting for the first time since he was suspended for a positive steroid test following a January 2015 bout, dropped Magny in the opening seconds and followed up with damage on the mat for more than three minutes.
Magny eventually got back to his feet and regained his senses in the final minute of the round.
He completely turned the fight around against a visibly tired Lombard once the second round began, though Lombard did drop Magny once again with a big punch midway through the second.
Magny ended the round with more than 40 unanswered punches to a mostly defenseless Lombard on the ground, but the referee chose not to stop the onslaught.
After Magny immediately picked up where he left off, the fight was finally stopped 46 seconds into the final round.
“In the first round, I was just thinking about keeping myself safe. I knew he was going to try and go for the finish, but I kept myself protected from heavy shots,” Magny said. “I knew when he wore himself out, I could pick up the pace and put him away.”
Magny has now won three straight fights and 10 of 11.
Lightweight Jake Matthews rallied for a third-round submission win to end Johnny Case’s 12-fight winning streak in a matchup of two of the division’s top prospects.
Matthews, 21, trailed on two scorecards entering the final round despite a tightly-contested opening 10 minutes.
“I’m absolutely stoked,” the Australian said after the fight. “The whole goal was to go out there and show people what I can actually do. In all my previous fights, they’ve seen maybe 20 percent of what I’m capable of. My wrestling and jiu-jitsu has always been there, but people hadn’t really seen my striking. I can hang with these guys. I don’t think I’ve completely shown it yet, but I’m getting closer.”
He locked in a rear-naked choke and forced a submission with just 15 seconds remaining on the clock.
Matthews has now won four of five fights since entering the UFC and is 10-1 overall.
“I wanted to show people that I’m here now,” he said. “I’m not a rising star, I’m here and ready to take big fights. I think I proved that today.”
Another Australian, four-time Olympic judoka Dan Kelly, improved to 4-1 in the UFC with a third-round knockout of Antonio Carlos Junior in a middleweight bout.
Kelly was taken down early in the fight and nearly submitted by the Brazilian jiu-jitsu specialist.
“I knew I had to finish him to win the fight,” Kelly said after a barrage of punches ended the bout on the ground. “In the first round, I couldn’t get his body triangle unlocked. I remained calm through it. He probably won the second, so I had to finish in the third. As soon as I landed that head kick and he was dazed, I had to pounce and take the opportunity. I knew the ref was going to stop it. I just had to keeping hitting away.”
Also on the main card, Steve Bosse needed just 52 seconds to knock out veteran James Te-Huna in a light heavyweight bout and Australian Bec Rawlings earned a unanimous decision over Seohee Ham in a women’s bantamweight bout.
Welterweight Alan Jouban highlighted the preliminary card with a first-round knockout of Brendan O’Reilly and Dan Hooker submitted Mark Eddiva in the first round of a featherweight bout.
Leslie Smith, Viscardi Andrade, Ross Pearson and Alan Patrick picked up decision victories.
Contact reporter Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com or 702-224-5509. Follow him on Twitter: @adamhilllvrj
