I said a few weeks ago that boxing isn’t dead. I stand behind that. However, I stand a little bit farther back if we are talking about the heavyweight division. If you get tired of watching someone named Klitschko jab another slow, outmatched tomato can for 12 rounds, head on over to the UFC. You could also take a look at UFC previews at Bet Today USA, if you want to make those fights a little more interesting.
If you happened to catch UFC Fight Night 33 on Friday, you saw one of the best fight cards of the year and, most likely, the best fight of 2013. That fight, miraculously, was between heavyweights. Even more amazing, one of them looks like an axe murderer, and the other is fatter than your old Uncle Ron.
Don’t believe me? Check out this pic from Sports Illustrated:
The guy on the left is Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva. He’s straight out of Central Casting. I’d refer to him as the Brazilian Richard Kiel, but only James Bond or Happy Gilmore enthusiasts would get the reference. He stands 6 feet 4 inches, and somehow weighed in at 264 lbs. for this match.
The guy on the right is Mark Hunt, a former kickboxing champion in K-1, who weighed in at a svelte 262 lbs. on his five-foot-ten-inch frame. Early in the action, UFC color commentator Kenny Florian mentioned that Hunt looked to be in much better condition for this fight, which elicited a guffaw from my girlfriend. He’s not exactly Brad Pitt in Fight Club.
But then again, who is?
While the recent handful of Heavyweight champs would beat the two of these men in a beauty contest or Mr. Olympia, Hunt and Silva combined forces to put on the best Heavyweight matchup of the year. Cain Velasquez is the Champ. Junior Dos Santos is a close second, but these two were must-see TV on Friday night, and I’d watch a rematch between them before I’d watch the next Cain/Junior tilt.
Hunt put on an MMA clinic, and Silva forced him to do so. The first two rounds were closely contested with Silva getting a slight advantage for superior defense of Hunt’s attacks.
The third round saw Hunt put Silva down with a straight right that would have knocked out any human that didn’t possess a head the size of a ripe watermelon. And somehow Silva got up.
Somehow, Antonio Silva got up and took punches from Hunt that no one should ever be able to survive. Hunt, after all, broke Stefan Struve’s jaw with a shot in a match earlier in 2013.
But Silva’s head is twice as big. Consequently, it took twice the beating. At least twice.
That is, until, Silva’s barrage of leg kicks finally forced Hunt to switch stances in the fourth round – giving the frame to Bigfoot on all three judges scorecards.
The only way Hunt fought himself to a majority draw was by dominating a 10-8 third round, and making sure the Brisbane crowd knew he was a game fighter on a card that wanted to make him a main event fighter.
Silva will fight for the championship again. Hunt will as well. We were treated to an amazing fight on Friday night. With all of the UFC events we are inundated with these days, it would be easy to ignore one like this.
I’m glad I didn’t miss it.