5 UFC fighters that could be the real life Rocky

#1 Mark Hunt

Mark ‘Super Samoan’ Hunt (12-10-1-1, 4 losses by KO/TKO; MMA) (30-13, kickboxing)

Now, moving on to the top of the heap. We have the ’Super Samoan’ Mark Hunt. The fearsome Kiwi Heavyweight has KO power in both hands and comes at his opponents form weird angles. His speed and movement are extremely deceptive, as is his ability to carry his power deep in fights, inspite of being overweight.

Hunt isn’t the best athlete in the UFC, however, what he does have is a fearless approach to the game and an instinctive usage of his traditional striking techniques. Hunt has competed, extensively in kickboxing, however, he uses his hands, more often than not, to finish fights.

He had terrible grappling during his run in PRIDE FC, however, as of now, in the UFC, he has successfully developed a decent grappling game. His takedown defense is not the best but he does have the ability to time his strikes on the incoming wrestler and also has a decent sprawl.

Let’s take a brief look at a few illustrations of Hunt’s durability. Hunt’s fight with Ray Sefo in kickboxing is a glaring example of his ability to absorb punishment and still keep moving forward. Besides, his back-and-forth brawl with the indestructible Ben Rothwell, is yet another example of Hunt’s durability.

In his fight against current UFC HW champion, Stipe Miocic, Hunt was repeatedly taken down throughout the 5 round fight, and ate an insane amount of ground strikes from Miocic. Inspite of taking punishment over the course of 25 minutes, Hunt never went out. He never gave up.

In the 5^th round of the Miocic fight, the referee intervened and stopped the fight resulting in a TKO loss for Hunt, however, had Miocic struck any other human being with that number of strikes, they wouldn’t be alive to tell the tale.

Hunt’s iron chin is further enhanced by his excellent basics. Hunt has excellent footwork and impeccable timing. For a guy his size, Hunt moves around like a wizard. His trademark walk-off KOs are a result of technique as much as his natural punching power.

As far as hand-fighting is concerned, Hunt is an expert at it. His parries are excellent. Whether he is struck by a punch or a kick, his deflections of his opponent’ strikes are like watching a master-class in the art of striking. His head movement is good and his fleet-footedness can give lightweights, a run for their money. Hunt has suffered several ups and downs in his career, both in kickboxing and MMA.

However, his iron chin and warrior spirit has enabled him to keep moving forward, and keep breaking barriers in the art of striking as well as the sport of MMA. The amount of damage that Hunt can take exceeds that of what most other Heavyweights can, including the current UFC champ, Stipe Miocic.

Regardless of weight class, regardless of their martial arts base, the aforementioned fighters are great examples of the insane toughness and otherworldly abilities of the fighters that dare to step foot inside the Octagon. Be it a BJJ fighter like Nelson or a kickboxer like Hunt, one thing connects these fighters- An iron chin and an unbreakable will.