Super Kiwi

OF all people who saw his gift and talent for fighting, it was Sam Marsters, who was a bouncer at a nightclub where “Super Samoan” Mark Hunt was involved in an altercation who invited Hunt to go to his gym to receive training for kickboxing.

And as they say, the rest is history.

Hunt won the K-1 Grand Prix World Championship in 2001 and after a stint in Japan’s Pride Fighting Championship, the man famous for “Walk-off knockouts” joined the biggest MMA promotion in the world, the UFC.

Despite having a background in Brazilian jiu-jitsu where he is a promotion away from being a black belt, most of his wins were by knockout.

Hunt beat Antonio Silva and Frank Mir despite the two fighters testing positive for PEDS after the fight. He lost by unanimous decision to Brock Lesnar * but he too tested positive for PEDS after their fight. The Lesnar fight was changed to a “no contest” after Lesnar’s positive test.

I think that Mark Hunt should’ve been declared the winner instead of changing it to a no contest. I think fighters should be declared the winner if their opponents tests positive for a banned substance, not a no contest.

The UFC has held two events in New Zealand. The second and last was one was at Spark Arena in Auckland which was headlined by Mark Hunt against Derrick Lewis which Hunt won by knockout.

The event held in Auckland was a culmination of all the hard-work, obstacles, tests, trials, tribulation and adversity that Hunt has overcome. I guess you could say, he came full circle.

Mark Hunt has an ongoing lawsuit against the UFC which is similar to another former MMA UFC fighter Cung Le’s lawsuit, the crux of which is taking care of your fighters—but both are stories for another column.

After all is said and done, Hunt will go vegetarian and fly back to Australia to be a husband to his wife and a father to his kids. He’s taken his kids to all of his fights and in my interview with him, made no mention of any of his children showing any interest in competing in combat sports.

I don’t blame them, the life of a professional boxer and MMA fighter is challenging.

Hunt is currently in Thailand preparing for a fight in boxing. He understandably could not disclose any details about it but he seems to be looking forward to it. Hunt was born to fight, a born fighter.

He’s a fighter both in life and inside and outside the squared circle and the eight corners of the octagon.