Mark Hunt knocks out Antonio Silva in rematch
— -- MELBOURNE, Australia -- A second meeting between heavyweights Mark Hunt and Antonio Silva went decidedly different than the first, as Hunt put the rematch away in under one round.
Hunt (11-10) earned his first win in more than a year, knocking out Silva (19-8) with a right hand just 3:41 into the fight. The UFC 193 bout was a rematch of a five-round war between the two in late 2013, which ended in a majority draw.
Unlike the first fight, which saw a combined 200 strikes landed, Saturday's bout did not feature many back-and-forth exchanges. Hunt stalked Silva around the cage, eventually buzzing him with a right-hand, left-hook combination. After that combo, Silva looked a bit stiff and couldn't get away from the fence as Hunt grew slightly more aggressive. A right hand to the temple crumpled Silva to his knees, and referee John Sharp stepped in immediately.
"Pretty satisfying," Hunt said when asked about the win. "I'm fit as a fiddle. I trained really hard at AKA Thailand. I had super hard guys to train with."
It's a nice, bounce-back win for the 41-year-old Hunt, who did not look "fit as a fiddle" in his last fight. In May, Hunt suffered one of the worst losses of his career; he was battered by Stipe Miocic over the course of five rounds in a TKO loss. Prior to that performance, Hunt came up short in an interim UFC title bid against Fabricio Werdum last November.
On the other side, Silva, 36, continues to struggle when it comes to taking punches. The Brazilian has now been knocked out in three of his past four fights, each time in the first round. A one-time UFC title challenger, Silva has just one win in his past six fights. He tested positive for elevated levels of testosterone following the 2013 draw to Hunt and was forced to serve a nine-month suspension.
Hunt, of New Zealand, received a nice pop from the Melbourne crowd. It is his eighth career knockout in mixed martial arts.
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