Mark Hunt
Mark Hunt’s MMA career was in bad shape when his contract was acquired by the UFC as part of their acquisition of PRIDE in the late 2000’s.
At the time the 35-year-old ‘Super Samoan’ was on a five-fight losing streak and had an overall record of 5-6, so the UFC brass offered to just pay him for the remaining fights on his contract and let him leave.
However Hunt refused, insisting that he he wanted to prove himself in the Octagon.
Things didn’t go well in his debut, being submitted by Sean McCorkle in just 63 seconds, but then came a remarkable turnaround as Hunt won four fights in a row against Chris Tuscherer, Ben Rothwell, Cheick Kongo and Stefan Struve.
It was a feel good story and Hunt was a firm fan favorite, even when he was KO’d in his next fight by Junior dos Santos.
Hunt then had an all-time classic slugfest with Antonio ‘Bigfoot’ Silva, before knocking out Roy Nelson and then earning a dream interim title opportunity against Fabricio Werdum.
Hunt would lose the fight, but he’d go on to compete for nine more bouts in the UFC before parting ways with the company.
