For a while there, in the second round, it looked as though the Super Samoan had the measure of Brock Lesnar.
After surviving a punishing first round, Mark Hunt found his range in the second. He started to land significant strikes and had Lesnar worried.
Lesnar got the contest to the mat in the final round but could not get the fight stopped, despite hammering a conga beat on Hunt’s skull.
It marked a successful comeback for the American, who was back in the Octagon for the first time in half a decade after problems with diverticulitis.
Thank You for the show @BrockLesnar & @MarkHunt1974! #UFC200 pic.twitter.com/9GIBrKOGuY
— UFC (@ufc) July 10, 2016
Post-fight, Lesnar had a lot of respect for the New Zealand-born fighter, saying “I wanted to finish the fight but the guy has got a coconut head… He’s a tough sum’bitch.”
Both men endured some heavy blows and Hunt, despite winding Lesnar, didn’t do enough to feel aggrieved when all three judges awarded the fight to the WWE star. Images from the dressing rooms and post-fight press conference show just how much damage Lesnar and Hunt did to each other:
On his Facebook page, Hunt summed up the three-round slog pretty well, describing it as a ‘Tough nite in the office’.
It sure was.
