Former K-1 World GP champion Mark Hunt won the "Knockout of the Night" award at Sunday's UFC 127 event at the Acer Arena in Sydney, Australia.
Hunt was announced by the UFC during the post-fight press conference as one of the four recipients of a $75,000 performance award bonus. The other post-fight winners were Kyle Noke for "Submission of the Night" and Chris Lytle vs. Brian Ebersole for "Fight of the Night."
It's been nearly five years since Hunt last picked up an MMA win, but he did so in impressive fashion. In the first round, Hunt opened a nasty cut above the left eye of opponent Chris Tuchscherer that nearly ended the fight and then sealed the deal in the second with an uppercut. Hunt ended a six-fight losing streak and improved his record to 6-7.
Noke made quick work of his fellow The Ultimate Fighter 11 cast member Chris Camozzi with a takedown followed by a rear-naked choke. The fight in his home country was Noke's shortest assignment in the UFC, lasting all of 95 seconds.
Ebersole made his UFC debut Sunday after 11 years of fighting around the world and pulled the upset over Lytle after three rounds of action. The back-and-forth battle featured cartwheel kicks and numerous guillotine choke attempts, but the most significant strike was a knee Ebersole landed in the second round to drop Lytle. From there, Ebersole rolled on to eventually win on the score cards 30-27, 29-28 and 29-28.
Former K-1 World GP champion Mark Hunt won the "Knockout of the Night" award at Sunday's UFC 127 event at the Acer Arena in Sydney, Australia.
