Mark Hunt vs. Junior dos Santos official for UFC 160 | UFC News

Two of the hardest hitting heavyweights will collide at UFC 160, as it was announced today that Mark Hunt (9-7 MMA, 4-1 UFC) will meet former champion Junior dos Santos (15-2 MMA, 9-1 UFC) in the evenings co-main event.

Earlier this week, Alistair Overeem (36-12 MMA, 1-1 UFC) pulled out of the highly anticipated fight with dos Santos due to a thigh injury. That news was followed by a phone call between Hunt and UFC president Dana White and 24 hours later, UFC 160 once again has a very intriguing heavyweight co-main event.

Hunt came into the UFC on the heels of a five-fight losing skid, which he aquired while competing for the Dream and Pride organizations of Japan. His octagon debut came at UFC 119, where Hunt was quickly submitted in the first round by Sean McCorkle.

Hunts bad luck would finally break at UFC 127, when he stopped Chris Tuchscerer with a one punch KO to earn “knockout of the night” honors. Hunt then outpointed Ben Rothwell at UFC 135 and followed that up by stopping Cheick Kongo in the first round at UFC 144 in Japan.

Most recently, the “Super Samoan” scored a brutal KO win over heavyweight contender Stefan Struve at this past months UFC on FUEL TV “Stann vs Silva” event. Hunt, who is known for his willingness to take a punch to throw one, walked through Struve’s punches that night to land a clean shot to the 7-footers chin. That punch earned Hunt another “KO of the night” bonus and left the Dutchman with a broken jaw.

Meanwhile, Junior dos Santos will fight for the first time since losing his heavyweight title to Cain Velasquez in a rematch this past December at UFC 155. The loss to Velasquez snapped a 10-fight win streak for JDS and marked his first defeat inside the octagon.

Junior had won the title by defeating Velasquez back at UFC on FOX 1 with a brutal first-round knockout. He followed that up by successfully defending the belt against former champion Frank Mir at UFC 146.

UFC 160 takes place May 25 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. The main card airs on pay-per-view following the prelims on FX and Facebook. In the evenings main event, heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez will defend his title against Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva in a remacth from last year.