Dan Bobish vs Mark Hunt
This is a ridiculous Pride fight
Dan Bobish, from Cleveland Ohio, worked his way up through other MMA promotions (including UFC) before being invited to Pride. His background is in wrestling. He's large, and his obvious weakness from his two previous Pride fights was his stamina and his ineffective bull rushing. His nickname is "The Bull" because he rushes straight at an opponent; face first it seems like. You take a lot of damage when you do that.
Mark Hunt is from New Zealand and his background is in Kickboxing. Before being invited to Pride, he won the K-1 Grand Prix tournament in 2003 as an unknown fighter. This is a tremendous accomplishment. He has an extremely tough chin, as you will see in this fight. (To win the K-1 tournament, you need a tough chin, because you are almost guaranteed to take big shots to the head every match.) His first Pride fight before this against Yoshida showed his weakness in the ground game. A lot of guys coming from kickboxing and boxing have trouble making the transition to MMA because of the ground game aspect.
It took place at Pride 28
On to the fight. Both fighters look in good physical shape. Bobish reminds me of Tank Abbott in a way.
The stare down is fairly respectful. Both fighters look determined.
The fight starts out with Bobish rushing in and taking some shots for it. Thirty seconds into it Bobish takes a big knee to his eye that cuts him bad. Blood is pouring and the fight has to be stopped so doctors can look at it. This is a good move by Pride. I'm glad they care about the safety of the fighters.
{Seriously, let this be a lesson to you. Never rush into an opponent like how Bobish does. You take way too much damage. Its suicidal unless you weigh 300 pounds like he does. The bull rushing might work against lesser skilled fighters, but not here against the best. It probably works well in bar room brawls against drunks, where you can absorb weaker shots and still get at them.}
The cut is cleaned, the fight resumes and they touch gloves. Good respect. Bobish rushes in and executes a beautiful body-to-body throw, Greco-Roman style, lifting Hunt off the ground and onto his back. Bobish lands on top with the side mount. His cut is bleeding pretty bad and getting blood on the mat.
The fight is restarted at the center of the ring. Gotta love this rule. Bobish is showing good wrestling skills controlling Hunt from the top. Hunt gave him his back, very dangerous to do that. Note how Bobish grabs Hunt's ankle and head at the same time and drives him to the mat at 8:05 left. This is an excellent way to bring down a guy who is trying to get up.
At 8:00 minutes left, the barrage of knees
Hunt is bleeding now and you can hear Bobish's corner yelling that out, telling him to attack that. Bobish throws four more knees but not with as much power behind them. Then he lands a huge knee. Then three more knees. I have never seen a guy take this much punishment from knees like Hunt has and still intelligently move around.
At 7:09 left, another huge knee lands. I'm feeling sorry for Hunt. He doesn't seem to know what to do to get out. Four punches to the head by Bobish. At 6:40, Bobish has a great opportunity to land knees square on Hunt's face. Three land. One partially blocked. Not all of the knees are landing with power, but still look painful. Another big knee.
The fight is restarted at the center now with Bobish still having side mount. Bobish is looking good. He stopped throwing knees for some reason. Maybe because it hurts your own knee after you've landed over ten. Bobish is still landing punches. The fight is slowing down and risking being restarted at its feet... why stop throwing the knees Bobish?
Bobish gets a neck crank on Hunt that looked dangerous. Hunt gave up his back again, yikes. 5:00 minutes left and Bobish is striking at will. He lands four more knees, some of which are dangerously close to hitting Hunt in the back of the head. Ref warns him. Six more knees.
I have never seen a guy take so many knees to the head
All of sudden, at 4:15, Hunt stands up. Hunt's face is not that damaged, considering how many knees to the head he took. Both guys look very tired. Bobish has his hands on his knees, an obvious sign of fatigue. This is like blood in the water for the opponent. The crowd is decidedly in favor of Hunt. Probably because of his fame from K-1 and the fact that Bobish has American flag trunks. Bobish's cut looks bad.
They circle...
Bobish tries rushing in again. Big mistake. The second time he does so Hunt connects with a big right upper cut at around 3:50 left. As Bobish is going down, Hunt throws him against the ropes and he bounces off and goes down. Hunt rushes in and punches him on the ground, then throws an illegal knee straight down to the back of Bobish's head. I don't know why the ref didn't call that a warning. Oh yeah, this is the shitty young ref.
Then Bobish stands up amazingly, while absorbing a body kick. He wobbles for a few seconds before going back down. Hunt tries a soccer kick to the head and the fight is stopped. 3+ minutes left in the round.
Wow.
Hunt shakes his head like "geez, I took a beating but won". It's almost like he doesn't want to accept this win, as the announcer said. That's funny and cool.
Bobish looks dazed on the ground and doctors are tending to him. Hunt checks on him and Bobish is coherent enough to raise his arm to him in a friendly way. Bobish gets up and they hug and shake hands. These are honorable warriors.
What a fight
Stamina got the best of Bobish. But really, how many 300+ lb guys could even last 6 minutes in a Pride fight. If you were Bobish, you had to finish the fight early or you would lose due to stamina. Its true as Bas Rutten said that once fatigue hits you, and then you get hit, its like you get hit twice as hard.
Good to see Bobish high fiving the fans on his way out. Bobish would later say that Pride paid him way better than any MMA organization. That's cool. And he fought in UFC.
As for Mark Hunt, no normal man could take as many knees to the head as he did and still be okay. That was insane. He can take more damage in a fight than any man I have ever seen.
Hunt would prove this time and again with later fights against Cro-Cop and Wanderlei Silva. He also has powerful striking ability. He is still a big name in MMA and has always been a fan favorite. He seems likable. Great job Mark.
Dan Bobish and Mark Hunt, thank you for fighting in Pride. That was a great fight.
Written August 2012
