KICKBOXING STAR’S TOUGHEST FIGHT
Kickboxing champion’s battle with suicidal thoughts – and his long road back to the light
IT took Nathan “Carnage” Corbett a decade to win 11 world kickboxing titles and be acclaimed as one of the toughest fighters on the planet.
It took less than six months for him to wish he had never set foot in a ring.
“When it was really dark, I’d look back at my career and think it wasn’t even worth it,” the 37-year-old says of the toughest bout he has fought – the one with his own mental demons. “I would have given all my (world title) belts away just to have no pain in my body and not feel broken.
“My body was hurting and then I started to develop anxiety and that just cripples you. I was completely lost and that’s when dark thoughts like suicide crept in.
“I had so many reasons to push on – a teenage son, family, friends – but this really dark cloud comes over you. Your brain just goes to that stupid place where you think there’s no other option. It’s live like this forever or get it over with now.
“I had so many days when I was standing in the ocean bawling my eyes out thinking ‘Just dive in and don’t come up’. You’re just crying for help and you don’t even know what help you’re after.”
During a 15-year career, Corbett inspired thousands of fight fans with his incredible rise from Gold Coast rookie to worldbeating champion in arguably the most primal of sports. Now, for the first time, he has revealed the heartache that followed his retirement, the chronic pain that continues to rack his body and why it’s time to share his story with the world.
“The reason I now speak about my vulnerable time isn’t for pity,” he says.
“It’s to connect with people, speak to their lives and make them realise that all of us have feelings, fears and doubts. It’s just whether you let those fears control you or try to overcome them.”
THE WARRIOR
His nickname says it all – Carnage.
In a sport that attracts the hardest of men, Corbett earned a reputation as one of Muay Thai’s most dangerous fighters, a man who annihilated opponents and possessed the most lethal of elbows.
Not bad for a kid who only took up karate at 14 to strengthen his body.
“I never viewed it as a sport,” he says. “All I wanted was to become strong. I didn’t even think I was good but I must’ve shown potential.”
That he did and after converting to kickboxing because it was “more real, more brutal, more full-on”, he became a Muay Thai legend – 60 wins in 64 fights, dozens of them by knockout.
Then, in the blink of an eye, it was over.
“I got a left hook in what turned out to be my last fight (in 2014) and my ear just tore in half,” he recalls. “I took time off to heal and soon realised my body was breaking down. They wanted to give me hip replacements. My hands were hurting. I’ve got bursitis in my shoulders and knees.
“I realised I couldn’t come back but didn’t tell anyone.
I WAS STANDING IN THE OCEAN BAWLING MY EYES OUT THINKING ‘JUST DIVE IN AND DON’T COME UP’. NATHAN ‘CARNAGE’ CORBETT