BY Michael Owens
2013 has been a banner year for great fights in MMA.
Fans were been spoiled for choice when it came to deciding the fight of the year in 2011 thanks to the efforts of Edgar, Maynard, Shogun, Henderson, Alvarez and Chandler. However, this year’s efforts may just overtake what might have been the gold standard year for all-time-great fights.
Fans were been spoiled for choice when it came to deciding the fight of the year in 2011 thanks to the efforts of Edgar, Maynard, Shogun, Henderson, Alvarez and Chandler. However, this year’s efforts may just overtake what might have been the gold standard year for all-time-great fights.
Silva vs. Stann, Melendez, vs. Sanchez, Hendricks vs. Condit, Chandler vs. Alvarez 2 and most of all Jones vs. Gustafsson were incredible scraps.Shocking, exciting and amazing in equal measure. In each of those fights, typically exciting fighters stepped it up a notch and delivered action of such ferocity, each was followed by arguments for their immediate consideration for the year’s top honours.
Friday nights five-round war between Antonio ‘Bigfoot’ SIlva and Mark Hunt was launched straight into the conversation along with those fantastic battles.
I don’t think it was quite the fight of the year, that honour should go to the 25 minutes of technical brilliance and all-out savagery that was Alexander Gustafsson’s oh-so-close-to-successful assault on Jon Jones’s title reign. However, Silva vs. Hunt had so much going for it that means it will always have a special place in my heart and should also take its place in the pantheon of the best fights of all time.
The first thing that made this contest so great, was that no-one expected it to go the distance. Both men pack a frankly obscene amount of power in their fists, and the punches they threw at each other would have and should have eviscerated normal human beings. Despite Hunt’s reputation for being outstandingly durable, knockouts against Melvin Manhoef and and Junior Dos Santos removed the mystique from around his still excellent chin. Silva has never been known as an iron-chinned warrior.
If anyone was deranged enough to think this fight might go the distance or even beyond three rounds, clear heads would have expected the fight to turn into a slop-fest, as many heavyweight fights between all but the very best do. Just look at Hunt’s own car crash of a fight against Ben Rothwell. We would soon find out that neither of these men had any intention of letting up though,even under the stress of truly titanic amounts of punishment.
Both men started to absorb blows that would have wiped out men of lesser fortitude inside the first round. However, the Super Samoan Hunt got back to his feet after being clipped by Bigfoot’s cinder-block fists. When punches were thrown in the opposite direction and leather connected with Silva’s Easter Island head, all but the most optimistic Brazilian fan must have been dumbfounded that the fight did not come to a halt.
As the fight continued, each behemoth of a man – who each has to cut to make 265 pounds by the way – had to survive prolonged periods of ground and pound. The fight looked to be moments from a conclusion when Silva took mount in particular. The hulking 34-year-old stopped the great Fedor Emelianenko from that position, and Hunt is not exactly known for his ground skills, but the klaxon sounded and a bloody and beaten former K-1 champion was able to carry on. In fact, he didn’t just carry on. He took over the fight. Furthermore, he didn’t just take over the fight, he took over the fight with a broken left hand, after it was cracked in two places on Silva’s gigantic skull.
When the fight was over, the two warriors embraced in a show of respect and mutual admiration that we have come to expect from this sport. I was even better to see after the bloodbath that had taken place immediately before hand, where two men had inflicted enough damage to kill any normal man.
I didn’t know how the fight would be scored. I had completely lost myself in the thrill of the fight, which is something I can’t say for any other fight this year, even the Jones vs. Gustafsson contest. It was going to be heartbreaking to see either of these men taste defeat after laying their heart and soul on the line for 25 minutes and probably taking years off their lives. I was thrilled to see a draw announced, and happy to see that neither men was completely dejected by the decision.
It sounds like a rematch will be made. One can only admire the frankly enormous set of balls on each of these heavyweights for their willingness to put their bodies through all of that again. The next fight probably won’t live up to what happened at UFC Fight Night 33. Both fighters my even end up performing as shadows of their former selves after such a vicious and barbaric war.
Whatever is in store can wait. For now, let’s just salute a pair of true warriors and take a moment to appreciate what the special effort that was undertaken on Friday.
