5 current UFC fighters who remind us of legends from the past

The comparisons between former middleweight kingpin Anderson Silva and current champ Israel Adesanya are easy to understand

While the world of UFC is ever-evolving, sometimes, fans can’t help but get reminded of the promotion’s past legends when some of its current stars go to work in the octagon.

The UFC has a few genuinely outstanding fighters right now. It feels like some of them, including the very best, have been hugely inspired by the legends who preceded them.

Anderson Silva vs Israel Adesanya was wild 😍

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The promotion’s current roster doesn’t feature the kind of one-dimensional stars of its early days. Regardless, it’s easy to draw parallels between some of today’s fighters and those of the past.

Here are five current UFC fighters who could be compared to legends of the past.

#5. Tai Tuivasa – the new Mark Hunt (former UFC heavyweight contender)

Tai Tuivasa's heavy hands and iron chin have garnered comparisons to former heavyweight legend Mark Hunt

Former K-1 legend Mark Hunt was never able to claim gold during his eight-year tenure with the UFC. Regardless, it was always easy to understand why he became a cult favorite with the fans.

'The Super Samoan' largely popularized the idea of the 'walk-off knockout' – essentially calling off a fight before the referee. His iron chin and less than svelte appearance gave off the vibe that he wasn't much of a professional athlete but a natural-born fighter.

Hunt always lived up to those expectations inside the octagon by putting on some classic brawls with Derrick Lewis and Antonio Silva. He survived ridiculous strikes as well from heavy hitters like Roy Nelson.

When he first arrived in the promotion back in 2018, it was easy to see why fans were quick to label Tai Tuivasa as the 'new Mark Hunt'. However, it looked like ‘Bam Bam’ would fail to live up to those expectations for a while. Between 2018 and 2019, Tuivasa lost three straight fights and appeared to be on his way out of the promotion altogether.

Since the start of 2020, he has changed things around and is now on a five-fight win streak, with victories coming by KO and 16 of those came in the first round. More to the point, just like Hunt, Tuivasa has shown an ability to absorb insane amounts of damage in those wins – and just like the Super Samoan, his major weakness still appears to be his ground game.

Whether Tuivasa can be better than Hunt and win UFC gold is not yet known, but for now, it’s hard not to compare these two Australian stars.

Tai Tuivasa showing off his chin against Mark Hunt.

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