Hurt Hunt may hit a disaster in NZ fight

Mark Hunt v Derrick Lewis. Mark Hunt v anyone. Frightening.

If American Lewis and the MMA media world are correct, Hunt is heading home for his first Fight Night contest in New Zealand in June.

He’s dancing with disaster, though, tangling with Lewis at his age. It could be a horror homecoming.

Hunt is a national treasure of sorts, the only trouble being that his chosen sport is taboo in polite company. Mixed Martial Arts is the devil’s work to a lot of people, who find it overly violent.

But Sydney-based South Aucklander Hunt has been a Kiwi trailblazer in a sporting phenomenon which has swept the globe. You may not like MMA, but plenty love it, live it. Hunt even wrote a terrific book about his life.

However, the thought of him stepping in the cage again gives me the wobbles. Surely it’s time for the Big Man to make the big decision, and think of his health.

Unlike his heyday, he’s a knockout victim waiting to happen every time.

Hunt is a combat sport senior citizen. At 42, he’s the oldest bloke still banging heads and other bits in the heavyweight arena, and is probably not the fighter he once was.

He’s on medical suspension . . . for a leg injury. It’s not his leg that Hunt should be worried about. It’s his head.

It was lights out for Hunt before he hit the canvas when Dutchman Alistair Overeem smashed his knee into Hunt’s chin early this month.

“The old warhorse is still alive,” tweeted Hunt, after being dealt to by Overeem.

But there’s living, and living. In other words, we’re talking quality of life.

And if the June 11 fight is confirmed, Hunt will be taking on a man 10 years his junior who is on a winning run of knockouts.

It’s a free world, and Hunt is a free man. But it would be awful to see him poleaxed again, and particularly on his big night in his old hometown.

Put Flem’s idea to test

Not a day went by — all three of them — in the Basin Reserve cricket test between New Zealand and South Africa when Stephen Fleming’s words didn’t jump into view.

Fleming called on New Zealand Cricket to re-boot by making T20 and ODIs the priority. He argued, quite correctly, New Zealand will never be competitive enough in tests.

As Fleming said, our ability to contest five-day games hangs by a thread. We don’t have the depth. Take out Ross Taylor and Trent Boult, and you have a disaster in store.

Throw in that the ICC — despite good intentions from some — runs a test game which panders to India, Australia and England, and you are left wondering why on earth New Zealand would keep banging their heads against a brick wall when there is such an exciting alternative.

Most sports fans, or floating voters, don’t give a toss about test cricket in this country. But there is a new audience out there which loves the shorter games. Our cricketers are made for ODIs and T20.

Fleming wants New Zealand players exposed to as much short form cricket as possible around the world, at the expense of playing first class games if necessary.

It’s a watershed moment, troops, and time to swim with the powerful tide.