IT WASN’T QUITE a vintage walk-off knockout from Mark Hunt, but the power in the 43-year-old’s hands was still enough for him to earn a TKO victory over Derrick Lewis in last night’s UFC Fight Night 110 main event in Auckland.
Fighting in his hometown, Hunt (13-11-1-1) got the better of Lewis (18-5-1) in the fourth round of their headline bout at the Spark Arena, which gave him his first victory since he overcame Frank Mir almost 15 months ago.
Hunt was defeated by Alistair Overeem in March and by Brock Lesnar last July at UFC 200. However, that loss was eventually overturned to a ‘no contest’ when Lesnar was flagged for an anti-doping violation.
“Derrick is a tough guy,” said Hunt after last night’s win. “I respect him because he doesn’t use steroids. I don’t think so. I think we all need to band together to get rid of steroids from our sport and make it an even playing field.”
Lewis, who complained of a lower back injury as he saw a six-fight win streak snapped, hinted at retirement in the aftermath of his first defeat in over two years.
The 32-year-old said: “That was probably my last fight. I’m getting married next week. I don’t like to put my family through all of this. Most likely this was my last fight in the UFC.”
In last night’s co-headliner, Derek Brunson bounced back from his defeat to Anderson Silva in February with a stunning first-round knockout of Dan Kelly.
UFC Fight Night 110
- Mark Hunt def. Derrick Lewis via TKO (punches) after 3:51 of the fourth round
- Derek Brunson def. Dan Kelly via KO (punches) after 1:16 of the first round
- Dan Hooker def. Ross Pearson via KO (knee) after 3:02 of the second round
- Ion Cutelaba def. Henrique da Silva via KO (punches) after 0:22 of the first round
- Ben Nguyen def. Tim Elliott via submission (rear-naked choke) after 0:49 of the first round
- Alexander Volkanovski def. Mizuto Hirota via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
- Vinc Pichel def. Damien Brown via KO (punches) after 3:37 of the first round
- Luke Jumeau def. Dominique Steele via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
- John Moraga def. Ashkan Mokhtarian via unanimous decision (30-25, 30-27, 30-27)
- Zak Ottow def. Kiichi Kunimoto via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
- JJ Aldrich def. Chan-Mi Jeon via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
