In an MMA landscape populated by over-puffed chests and disingenuous verbal barbs, there's something refreshing about UFC heavyweight Mark "The Super Samoan" Hunt.
The 41-year-old striker from New Zealand is a beautiful contradiction of power and restraint, of confidence and modesty. To see him on the street, with his dyed hair and his intricate tattoos from his neck to his ankles, you may peg him for an artist or a musician. His appearance is colorful—literally—and you expect that bravado which permeates the MMA world to gush from the levee when he opens his mouth.
But it doesn't.
Instead, you get the words of an honest, humble man, a man who has forged a 25-year professional fighting career from scratch and who knows he is fortunate to be where he is today.
He's thankful and respectful inside and outside the cage—his walk-off knockouts are a testament to the former—and he filters the funk from the substance with apparent ease.
Heading into his UFC Fight Night 65 bout against Stipe Miocic May 9 in Adelaide, Australia, Hunt is in prime form. He has a full training camp behind him, and he's ready to work his way back into the heavyweight title picture.
"I want to be the world champion," Hunt told Bleacher Report. "I want to at least fight for the world title again, you know? Things like this are motivation for me, and I look forward to them."
Rewind the tape of Hunt's fighting career to the beginning, and mentions of a world title would seem delusional at best. The Kiwi kickboxer didn't find fighting so much as fighting found him, and one particular scrap outside a night club changed his future forever.
As the story goes, Hunt knocked out multiple people outside a club shortly after being released from jail for the second time in Auckland, New Zealand. An onlooker noticed Hunt's power and potential and invited him to compete in an upcoming muay thai bout taking place right there at the scene of the brawl.
Hunt had four days to train.
"I'm someone who doesn't have a pedigree in any martial art…I was outside a club on that occasion and that's how I started fighting," Hunt said. "The next week I was inside the same club fighting a muay thai fight. You know, 25 years later on, I'm still competing, I've already won my world title in my chosen sport and now I'm chasing another dream in another different sport...It's just crazy to think. But this story is true, mate."
Twenty-five years later, Hunt is the No. 5-ranked fighter in the heavyweight division of the world's premier mixed martial arts organization. He will serve as the main event close to home in Adelaide Saturday evening when he takes on Miocic, and he's not overthinking things heading into this crucial bout.
Fighting, to him, was simple when it started—he relied on his instincts and natural power outside the club—and it remains simple today as he faces the highest-level fighters in the world.
"Fighting's simple, man: If I can rock this guy, if I can put a lot more hits on this guy than he puts on me, then I've won," Hunt said. "My game plan is simple all the time: If I can whoop your ass before you whoop my ass, then you're done. That's basically it. I'm not trying to be arrogant. That's just the way things work."
What's not so simple, though, is maintaining the confidence and drive to move forward, especially in a volatile sport like MMA that frequently tosses fighters to the mud without warning.
While Hunt is currently beloved by fans across the globe for his personable demeanor and fan-friendly fighting style, The Super Samoan's stock was not always so high.
"Oh, yeah, everybody loves Mark Hunt," Hunt said. "People just love the stories...They didn't love me when I was frickin' losing. When you lose, it's, 'That Mark Hunt, he's a piece of s--t.' That's just life and the way things are. I accept all this. I accepted it a long time ago."
Hunt had to confront these sentiments head-on when he joined the UFC. He came into the Octagon on a five-fight losing streak, and matters only got worse from there.
In his debut at UFC 119, he was submitted by heavyweight journeyman Sean McCorkle in the first round, leaving him with seemingly nowhere to go. The UFC reluctantly absorbed his contract after buying Pride in 2007, and now it was stuck with a one-dimensional, washed-up kickboxer on a six-fight losing streak.
Hunt, however, knew this wasn't the case. He didn't dwell on the past. That was done. His losses were marked, and he'd have to move on.
"If I worried what everyone else was thinking, man, I'd still be in bed. The only [things] that matter to me [are] what my family thinks and that I can provide for them—that's what matters to me," Hunt said. "It's not an easy thing to lose all the time or to come off losses, especially after coming off six losses in a row when you're building yourself up all the time then people say, 'You're not s—t,' you know?
"I'll shake it off. I'll restart what I'm doing. I'll refocus, then I go at it again. If I fall over in a hole, I'm not going to sit in the f-----g hole. I'm going to get out of the f-----g hole. I'm not going to sit in there. In fighting, it's the same thing. Exactly like life. It's all the same. You fall down, you get back up."
Presently, Hunt stands among the best in the game, and he hasn't just stood back up—he's risen to his feet and then climbed the ladder in MMA's deepest heavyweight division, where he can presently see the glint of gold ahead.
A win over Miocic may net Hunt the opportunity to challenge for the UFC heavyweight championship, perhaps later this year at UFC 193 in Australia, and The Super Samaon would greet the opportunity with excitement and pride.
"It'd mean everything to me [to win the UFC championship]," Hunt said. "It'd mean everything to this side of the world, being the first guy to do it. For my career, I'm the only K-1 fighter outside of Europe that's ever won it from this side of the world, and I want to do the same thing for the UFC, to be one of the first fighters to win it. It's good news for Mark Hunt the fighter.
"Fighting at home is like, you know, you're not going to beat me on an easy basis in my backyard. There's no way. He's going to have his work cut out for him coming to Adelaide, will Stipe."
