Introduction
UFC Fight Night 33: Hunt vs. Bigfoot took place on Friday, December 6, 2013 at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia — broadcast live on Fox Sports 1 to 755,000 average viewers with a peak of 886,000 and attended by 11,393 fans for a gate of $1.785 million. The event is remembered for one reason above all: the main event between Mark Hunt and Antônio ‘Bigfoot’ Silva, which ended in a majority draw after 25 minutes of sustained heavy-hitting warfare that is consistently ranked among the greatest heavyweight fights in UFC history.
The draw was not a quiet or anticlimactic result: both fighters had been knocked down multiple times, both had looked close to being finished, and neither had been able to put the other away across five rounds. UFC President Dana White was so enthusiastic about the result that he awarded both fighters their win bonuses despite the draw, and declared it one of the greatest fights he had ever seen. The card also featured Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua’s first-round KO of James Te Huna, Shogun’s comeback performance after a run of tough losses.
A significant postscript: on December 17, 2013 — eleven days after the event — it was announced that Silva had failed his post-fight drug test for elevated testosterone. The result was changed to a No Contest for Silva, while Hunt’s majority draw was retained. Silva’s $50,000 Fight of the Night bonus was redirected to Hunt.
Quick Stats
📅 Date: Friday, December 6, 2013 (local; Saturday December 7 AEDT)
📍 Venue: Brisbane Entertainment Centre, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
👥 Attendance: 11,393
💰 Gate: $1.785 million
📺 Broadcast: Fox Sports 1 — 755,000 avg. viewers (886,000 peak)
🏆 Main Event: Mark Hunt vs. Antônio ‘Bigfoot’ Silva — Heavyweight (5 rounds)
⚖️ Result: Majority Draw (48-47 Hunt, 47-47, 47-47) — later changed to NC for Silva after failed drug test
The Fight: Twenty-Five Minutes of Warfare
Silva — a 6’4” heavyweight with a history of standout UFC performances — controlled the early rounds with his physical presence and volume. He rocked Hunt repeatedly in the first two rounds and appeared on the verge of finishing the fight on multiple occasions. Hunt, the former K-1 World Grand Prix champion and one of the most naturally powerful strikers in MMA, absorbed the damage and kept firing back. His right hand was the single most dangerous weapon in the contest.
Round three saw Hunt land a knockdown. Round four was the fight’s most intense passage: both men were hurt, both were exhausted, and both kept swinging. By round five, neither fighter could generate the power needed to finish, but neither was prepared to disengage. The final bell produced a standing ovation from the Brisbane crowd. The judges saw it as a majority draw — one judge gave Hunt the win (48-47), two saw it even (47-47). Dana White declared the bout earned Fight of the Night and gave both fighters their win bonuses. A week and a half later, the postscript arrived: Silva had tested positive for elevated testosterone.
Full Results
Main Card (Fox Sports 1)
Mark Hunt vs. Antônio Silva — MAJORITY DRAW (48-47, 47-47, 47-47) — Heavyweight (5 rounds); FotN $50k each; Silva later failed drug test — NC for Silva, draw retained for Hunt
Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua def. James Te Huna — KO — R1, 1:03 — Light Heavyweight (KotN $50k; Shogun’s comeback)
Ryan Bader def. Anthony Perosh — Unanimous Decision — Light Heavyweight (Bader’s bounce-back after Teixeira KO)
Soa Palelei def. Pat Barry — KO — Heavyweight
Clint Hester def. Dylan Andrews — TKO (doctor stoppage) — Middleweight
Preliminary Card
Bethe Correia def. Julie Kedzie — Split Decision — Women’s Bantamweight
Takeya Mizugaki def. Nam Phan — Bantamweight
Caio Magalhães def. Nick Ring — Middleweight
Justin Scoggins def. Richie Vaculik — Flyweight
Krzysztof Jotko def. Bruno Santos — Middleweight
Alex Garcia def. Ben Wall — Welterweight
Bonuses & Awards
🥇 Fight of the Night: Mark Hunt + Antônio Silva — $50,000 each (both fighters also received win bonuses; Silva’s FotN share later redirected to Hunt after drug test)
🥇 Knockout of the Night: Mauricio Rua — $50,000 (R1 KO of Te Huna at 1:03)
⚠️ Submission of the Night: NOT AWARDED — no submissions on the card
Records & Milestones
• Hunt vs. Bigfoot — one of the most celebrated draws in UFC history; widely cited as one of the greatest heavyweight fights ever.
• Silva’s positive drug test for elevated testosterone — result retroactively changed to NC for Silva on December 17, 2013.
• No Submission of the Night awarded — rare occurrence on a Fight Night card with 11 bouts.
Legacy & Impact
Hunt vs. Bigfoot stands alongside Forrest Griffin vs. Stephan Bonnar (UFC 32 The Ultimate Fighter 1 Finale), Dan Henderson vs. Mauricio Rua (UFC 139), and a handful of other fights as definitive examples of what heavyweight MMA can be at its most visceral and unpredictable. The draw result, the drug test, the retroactive NC for Silva — none of it diminished the fight itself. Both fighters threw their hardest shots for 25 minutes and neither stopped. Dana White’s post-fight tweet — saying he had never been so happy with a draw and that the real winner was the fans — captured the mood accurately. The fight is still regularly included in Fight of the Year retrospectives for 2013.
FAQ
What made Hunt vs. Bigfoot one of the greatest heavyweight fights ever?
Both fighters threw and landed enormous power shots. Neither took a step back when hurt. Silva controlled most of the first two rounds and was close to finishing Hunt on several occasions; Hunt landed a knockdown in round three and nearly stopped Silva; round four was mutual destruction at championship pace; and round five was fought by two exhausted heavyweights who had nothing left except the will to finish. The finish never came. The combination of two elite finishers failing to finish each other across 25 hard-fought minutes of heavyweight combat — and both fighters showing genuine heart and durability throughout — is what distinguished it from ordinary competitive fights.
What did Silva’s drug test failure change about the result?
Silva’s post-fight test showed elevated testosterone levels, similar to the issues that had surrounded Bigfoot’s prior fights. The result was changed to a No Contest for Silva on December 17 — meaning officially, from Silva’s record perspective, the fight never happened. Hunt’s record retained the draw. Silva’s $50,000 Fight of the Night share was redirected to Hunt, who therefore received $100,000 in total bonus money. The NC stripped the result of its clean sporting narrative but did not change most observers’ view of the fight itself: it happened, it was extraordinary, and the drug test was a separate issue from the quality of the performance.
Why did Dana White give both fighters their win bonuses for a draw?
Fighter contracts typically include a win bonus equal to the show money — double the base purse for a victory. Draw results contractually pay only the show portion. White exercised his discretionary authority to pay both fighters the win bonus anyway, citing the quality of the performance and the fact that neither fighter had done anything wrong to earn a non-winning result. His tweeted response — that he had never been so happy with a draw — became the fight’s most shared quote. It was a rare instance of UFC management publicly overriding the contractual outcome to reward a performance on its merits.
What was the significance of Shogun Rua’s KO of Te Huna?
Rua had gone 1-3 in his previous four UFC fights, losing to Jon Jones (UFC 128), Dan Henderson (UFC 139), and Alexandre Gustafsson (UFC on Fox 5). His future in the UFC was being questioned. The Te Huna fight in Brisbane, in front of an enthusiastic Australian crowd, produced a first-round finish that quieted the retirement talk. Rua landed a short left hook that sent Te Huna stumbling, then followed with a right hand for the stoppage at 1:03. Knockout of the Night, $50,000. The win extended his UFC career by at least two years.
Where does Hunt vs. Bigfoot rank among UFC heavyweight fights?
It regularly appears in lists of the top 3–5 heavyweight UFC fights of all time. The fights it competes with include Hunt vs. Nelson (UFC 200, similar KO-threat-meets-survival energy), Henderson vs. Rua 2 (UFC 139, widely considered the all-time best non-title fight), and Velasquez vs. Dos Santos 1 (UFC 141, explosive HW championship). Hunt vs. Bigfoot is distinctive because neither man could finish despite both being elite finishers — a paradox that made every round more tense rather than less.
Why was there no Submission of the Night bonus at Fight Night 33?
All 11 fights on the card ended by KO, TKO, decision, or a doctor stoppage. No fight ended by submission. The UFC’s policy is not to award a Submission of the Night bonus if no submission occurred, rather than to award it to the closest approximation. Cards without a SotN are rare but not unprecedented; they typically occur on cards with heavyweight-heavy match-ups (heavyweights finish by strikes far more commonly than lighter divisions) or when submission-focused fighters lose or fight to decisions on the same night.