Once more, Mark Hunt hits and walks away, almost like he knows something we don't

He did it again. That incredible, ageless skull-thumper. Mark Hunt did it again.

One right hand. One dismissive glance. A few steps past the fallen, limp body of Frank Mir, and the main event of UFC Fight Night 85 was over just a shade over three minutes after it had started.

Maybe a better way of putting it is, Hunt (12-10-1 MMA, 7-4-1 UFC) decided it was over. If referee Marc Goddard needed a second to examine Mir (18-11 MMA, 16-11 UFC) for himself just to arrive at the same conclusion in the end, that was fine with Hunt. He figured he’d go ahead and stroll off out of the way somewhere, doing that thing he does where he seems to be shrugging using only his face.

It’s such a strange thing to be known for, this penchant for walk-off knockouts. In a sport that prizes savage finishers, Hunt’s thing is doing just enough to win and no more. His thing is also supreme confidence in his own power, and a knowledge of its ability to incapacitate that borders on a sense of mercy and responsibility.

When you know – not hope or think or believe, but really know – that one punch is enough, why throw two?

It’s not so different from how Hunt approaches interviews, parsing out words in small clumps as if he only has so many at his disposal each day and wants to make sure he saves enough to order a good dinner.

As fighter trademarks go, you can’t get much cooler than hitting your opponent and walking away secure in the knowledge that he won’t get up. That’s especially true in MMA, the one combat sport where swaggering away from a downed but still technically conscious opponent is almost always a bad idea.

But here we must return to the question that won’t leave Hunt alone: As he closes in on his 42nd birthday, and with a professional record that’s always threatening to dip back below .500, is being cool enough?

For the fans who love to watch Hunt do his thing or nearly die trying, it sure seems like the answer is yes. Hunt’s brand of nonchalant violence make him almost impossible to dislike. The fact that he also seems like a perpetual underdog, this over-the-hill heavyweight with perhaps the least impressive musculature in UFC history, only pushes him further into fan favorite territory.

This is the guy the UFC tried to pay off just to avoid putting him to work. He’s also the guy who was once the subject of a half-ironic social media “rally” aimed at getting him a heavyweight title shot. Even after that failed, he almost got there on his own, fighting for the UFC interim title and getting knocked out by current champ Fabricio Werdum in 2014.

The enduring sense that he almost shouldn’t have made it this far, or done this well for this long, makes him an easy guy to cheer for. But as Hunt has asserted throughout his career, he’s not here to be some likable extra in the heavyweight division. Just like the younger guys, his goal is to be the best in the world.

It seems like, as much as we love watching him crack heads and walk away, we just don’t see him that way. To us, he’s the guy who does one thing really well – and it just happens to be a really fun thing.

But after knocking out a former UFC heavyweight champ like Mir who gets further from his glory days, not to mention his once-glorious physique, every time we see him, it’s hard not to wonder what this has changed about Hunt’s standing in the sport.

His talk after the win was of rematches with opponents who’ve beaten him – guys like Werdum, Junior dos Santos, and Stipe Miocic, who all seem to have other plans at the moment – so clearly Hunt isn’t about to stop aiming high. The UFC, on the other hand, seems to like him most in his current role.

He can main event a cable TV fight card, draw a crowd in Australia or Japan when necessary, and serve as a high-quality gatekeeper to the upper echelons of the division. He can keep showing up and keep getting paid. He can even add a few more pages to the already borderline mythical tale of “The Super Samoan.” But is that enough?

For fans, it sure seems to be. And for the UFC, Hunt is one accidental acquisition that paid off big time. As for Hunt, we can’t be surprised if he still envisions himself climbing those heavyweight ranks well into his forties. And since he always seems to know the truth before anyone else when it comes to his knockouts, maybe here’s another question where he’s earned the benefit of the doubt.

For more on UFC Fight Night 85, check out the UFC Events section of the site.