One of the more surprising acquisitions made in 2017 was the UFC’s signing of kickboxing legend, Gokhan “The Rebel” Saki. And when you bring in a fantasy fighter like Saki, then why not make some fantasy matchups?
The Netherlands native knows this too and that’s what he has now begun to campaign for.
In his 96-fight, 18-year long career, “The Turkish Tyson” has never crossed paths with a fellow one of kickboxing’s biggest icons. That being the “Super Samoan” Mark Hunt.
Saki recently expressed interest in the matchup after Hunt’s loss this past Saturday at UFC Moscow to Alexey Oleynik. A fight in which Hunt had stated previously and after that, he would like to fight on the UFC’s return to Australia on December 2, UFC Adelaide, regardless of the outcome. Hunt’s next fight will be the last on his UFC contract.
Saki vs Hunt in Heavyweight. Stand and bang?! How do you guys feel about that?
Takipçilerim ne düşünüyor? Stand ve patlamamı?!?! Sen de şu fikirde hemfikirsen Like yap ve duşunceni yaz. pic.twitter.com/GdpVvirDwz
— Gökhan Saki (@gokhantherebel) September 19, 2018
Saki vs Hunt in Heavyweight. Stand and bang?! How do you guys feel about that?
Never one to back down from a good ol’ game of “punch face” as he likes to call it, Hunt accepted the challenge from Saki.
https://twitter.com/markhunt1974/status/1042576564989251584
Let’s bang then @gokhantherebel 👊🏽👊🏽👊🏽👊🏽👊🏽👀👀 #UFCAdelaide @Mickmaynard2 @ufc
In his very short three-fight MMA career to this point, Saki has competed in the light heavyweight division but has fought at heavyweight in kickboxing against plenty of opponents that are much larger than him. Some names include the likes of Tyrone Spong, Rico Verhoeven, Semmy Schilt, Badr Hari, Alistair Overeem, Remy Bonjasky and many others.
Saki last fought at UFC 226 in July when he shockingly suffered his first UFC defeat at the hands of Khalil Rountree who scored the upset with a first-round TKO.
In Hunt’s fight with Oleynik, he didn’t seem to suffer much damage at all so he should be healthy and ready to go by December for one last UFC showdown. It just comes down to whether or not the UFC wants to oblige.
This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 9/20/2018