Article Written By: Dillon Nelson
UFC Fight Night 33 was a great night of fights, and saw probably one of the best heavyweight fights of all time. Both Hunt and Silva came to win and both fighters left it all in the cage. Along with the great fights, there were great knock outs. It was the first show the UFC has done in Australia, and the fans were not disappointed.
Mauricio “Shogun” Rua made a statement when he put James Te Huna down in the first round with a nasty left hand. Shogun desperately needed this win with Dana White saying that if he did not win there would be a serious conversation of his retirement. After watching the replay, Te Huna seemly walked right into the left hand. Shogun looked like a caged animal hovering over Te Huna’s limp body.
The night also saw an amazing fight between Nam Phan and Takeya Mizugaki. They had a three round war, that saw Takeya controlling the majority of the fight even on several occasions knocking Phan down. At the end of the fight, all three judges saw the fight 29-28 for Takeya Mizugaki. Nam Phan started to come alive in the third round when Mizugaki was starting to run out of steam, but it was little too late, Mizugaki had dominated too much of the match.
In the only female fight of the night, we saw Bethe Correia in a very close fight with MMA Veteran Julie Kedzie. The fight was very “back and forth” with both ladies landing punches and kicks. Correia, several times pushed the fight up against the cage getting in some dirty boxing. They traded pretty evenly leading into the third round. Kedzie tried to land a body kick which Correia caught and took her to the mat. Most of the third round was Correia roughing up Kedzie on the ground until the round ended. The fight ended in a split decision victory for Bethe Correia. Kedzie later announced her retirement from MMA with this loss.
Pat Barry tasted yet another loss by knock out at the hands of Soa Palelei. Soa started quickly by winging punches and going for the takedown. Barry was able to stuff the takedown and they would then break away. Barry went for a leg kick followed by a head kick to no avail. Soa clinched with Barry, who then pulled for a kimura falling to his back. Soa slipped out of the kimura attempt and started to rain punches down on Barry. At the end of the flurry Barry went out. The officials made a mistake letting Barry stand up immediately after he was unconscious, which led to Barry face planting into the mat.
The featured fight of the night was Mark Hunt against Antonio Silva. The fight was one of the greatest fights in heavyweight history with both men beating each other into a bloody mess. Round one saw a very even match with both men throwing haymakers and kicks. Both men missed quite a bit but made up for it with power shots. The second round was a lot of the same, back and forth, but Silva was able to catch Hunt with a big body kick that seemed to hurt him.In the third round, both men seemed to be gassed, Hunt with mouth wide open taking in huge breaths. Hunt is able to catch Silva with a big shot that puts him into the canvas. Silva trying to scoot free from Hunt’s mount gets caught with a few more punches. Round four started with Hunt being aggressive and going for a trip but he actually ended up tripping himself and Silva jumps into his guard. He easily moves into mount where he started to unload shots onto Hunt’s head. Hunt bleeding badly, was able to survive the round.
At this point, its three rounds to one in favor of Antonio Silva. The fifth and final round starts and Hunt is out for blood. He catches Silva several time but is unable to drop him. The round went on with Hunt inches away from ending it but Silva was able to survive to the end of the fight. As we waited for the decision, one judge scored the fight 48-47 for Silva, while the other two scored it a 47-47 draw. Because of the two judges scoring it a tie, the fight ended as a majority decision draw. Later it was released that Hunt actually Broke his hand in two places during the fight, showing that he is a tough man being able to fight through the pain to get the draw.