0ark +unt Eeaten Ey CurtLs %laydes at 8)C
8SA - .iwi heavyweight 0ark Hunt lost to American Curtis Blaydes in the co-main event at 8FC 22 .
.iwi 0ark Hunt’s chances of earning a shot at the heavyweight title have taken a huge blow after he suffered a unanimous points defeat at 8FC 22 in 3erth on Sunday.
Hunt 3- 2- , who entered the fight ranked fifth in the division, was out-wrestled by rising American star Curtis Blaydes in the three-round bout.
The 3-year-old is now certain to fall out of the top five and with only two fights left in his 8FC career, is highly unlikely to fulfill his dream of winning the heavyweight belt. Blaydes was in trouble during the opening round after copping a series of heavy punches to the head.
At one point, it looked like Hunt was close to forcing a stoppage as Blaydes struggled to keep his feet.
However, the µSuper Samoan’ failed to finish the job, allowing Blaydes to turn the contest into a grapple-fest. Hunt was powerless on the ground during the second and third rounds as Blaydes registered a total of 0 takedowns.
Every time he got back to his feet he would be body slammed straight back onto the tarmac, with the judges scoring the fight 30-26, 30-26, 2 -2 in favour of Blaydes. “He came on like , knew he would,´ said the ninth-ranked Blaydes, who improved his record to - . “He tried to knock me out and hurt me early. , learned my lesson and went back to my takedowns ± ground and pound.´
Hunt did not have a post-fight interview inside the octagon but he did post a brief message on ,nstagram, saying “Hard day in there congrats Curtis on the :.´
Blaydes left the cage to a chorus of boos from the 3erth crowd but he made no apologies for his conservative game plan.
“, know Australians are going to root for their hero. 1o offence but , came to win and , did what , wanted to do.´
(Stuff)