I just watched Mark Hunt’s post fight interview after PRIDE FC: SHOCKWAVE. When asked “This was first defeat of Wanderlei Silva in PRIDE, how do you feel about that?”, Hunt says “I was kind of lucky, the fight could have easily gone to Wanderlei...but yeah it was a good win, especially over Wanderlei.”. I am a huge Mark Hunt fan, he is an awesome fighter and also very humble in victory. How can people say “Hunt dominated Silva!”, when Hunt himself was surprised that he won the judges decision? Not to take anything away from Hunt’s victory because he was awesome in that fight and a win is a win. But you could tell, especially when the third judge announced his name as the winner, that he was surprised that he won the fight.
"could" being the key word in that entire interview. Hunt never said, "Wanderlei won the fight."
I realize that no fighter would ever openly admit that they think they lost a fight, but when a fighter finds out that they won and the expression they give on their face is like “I did!?”, it says something.
Hunt literally said “Lucky.”, when he was asked what he thought about the fight.
He was simply saying the fight was real close, not that Silva clearly won. The fight could have gone either way on the decision but I for one felt Hunt deserved it.
mark hunt does that alot. He is an extremly humble fighter and good person. Watch some of his k1 decision wins he also is surprised when he wins. He is GREAT!@!
"Let's have rematch then and see who is eager to fight again."
Eager or not, if a rematch happened Vanderlei would win.
again
Please. Let go of your Wandy love dude- he lost- EVERYONE saw that!
"Eager or not, if a rematch happened Vanderlei would win"
Are you serious?Hunt took the fight on three days notice as well as having a bad ankle which hinders your punching.Also if you watch it was not the same Wand out there he was on the backfoot the whole fight and was very careful when he did something.He was not the usual Wand because he was probably thinking this guy can really hit hard and has an iron jaw.If both are given time and train hard and are healthy I say Hunt wins again.Only this time with more force.
he looked very surprised when the announcer said his name.
I really don't think Vanderlei would want to fight an in-shape Hunt.
All that seems to be is Hunt being a humble guy. Granted, it was a close fight, but I didn't read anything there that said "That decision was pure poppycock, I acknowlege Vanderlei Silva as the true victor of our pugilistic encounter."
In no way did Hunt admit that "he feels that Silva won". He simply said that the fight was close and could have went the other way. He's right, but Hunt earned that victory.
It was when Hunt stunned Silva that won the fight for him. Silva messed up big time trying to stand with Hunt. He had a bad game plan and lost because of it. When he went for the takedowns, he got them and dominated on the ground. But Silva wants to put on a show and it cost him. He played into Hunts game. Next time if Silva goes for the ground game, he wins the rematch for sure.
I thought Silva should of won along with Rutten, Stevens replacement, and Randy "The Natural" Couture.
Also the look on Hunts face when the Dec came clearly shows that he thought Silva won the fight untill the Dec came.
But I guess Silva didnt look to end the fight and Hunt almost did a couple of times so they went with that.
One thing I was really shocked by and I slowed motioned this to really zone in on it, is a number of times Silva would begin to throw his right and before his punch could even get to Hunt, Hunt would have his right on Silva. Hunt timed Silva's punch and beat him to the punch. That from a guy who weighs 275 lbs. That was very impressive.
"One thing I was really shocked by and I slowed motioned this to really zone in on it, is a number of times Silva would begin to throw his right and before his punch could even get to Hunt, Hunt would have his right on Silva. Hunt timed Silva's punch and beat him to the punch. That from a guy who weighs 275 lbs. That was very impressive."
This is why wide looping hooks don't really work too well against a world class striker like Hunt who knows how to throw straight punches!
Hunt def. seemed he wasnt too proud of the decision but that doesnt mean that he thinks Silva won, lock, stock and barrel.
But Hunt impressed the shit out of me, his 3 sub escapes were amazing (hammerlock, armbar, triangle).
He tossed Vanderlei's leg on the triangle attempt right away, that was impressive!
And the Atomic Butt Bomb? Shit!
Both guys impressed more to new levels!
Im not a big fan of rematches.. but id love to see a rematch in this case. itd help BOTH fighters. a lot of people are saying Hunt would kill silva in a rematch because he would be prepared and he would be in much better shape, which is true. but silva would also weigh 215-220 in a rematch, and with hunt being 10 pounds or so less, the weight disadvatnage to silva would be like.. 30 pounds less.. so both fighters would come in to the fight more prepared.
Maybe he was surprised he got the decision in a close fight against Pride's Marquee fighter?
"Hunt took the fight on three days notice as well as having a bad ankle which hinders your punching."
He didn't look hindered and he'd clearly been training.