In 'Born to Fight,' Mark Hunt unveils horror-show childhood and a hero wife

Mark Hunt

At first, the title of UFC heavyweight Mark Hunt’s autobiography, “Born to Fight,” comes across as trite. Those words are a cliche in the fight game, but by the end of Hunt’s book, the reader will understand titling the book anything else would have been a disservice to Hunt and the life he has survived.

In “Born to Fight” (Hachette Australia; 240 pages), Hunt and his co-writer, Ben Mckelvey, jump directly into the ugliness that the now 41-year-old Hunt endured as a child in New Zealand. Tumultuous would be a way to describe the upbringing of him and his three older siblings, but that word lacks when describing the horror show that took place inside the Hunt household. Repugnant or abhorrent would be more fitting descriptions.

It’s hard to read about the beatings, the hunger and the terror that was visited upon the Hunt children. Most disturbing are the recollections of Hunt’s father repeatedly sexually assaulting his own daughter with the full knowledge of the mother.

It’s tough to imagine anyone could leave that environment unscarred. None of the Hunt children was able to escape that house without longterm emotional and physical damage.

Unfortunately, it’s during this section in which it feels like Hunt is holding back. He writes about the incidents in that charnel house, describing how he turned into a violent, predatory, criminal young man, but does so in a way that feels like he is leaving something unsaid.

Hunt (10-10-1 MMA, 5-4-1 UFC), who returns Nov. 14 against Antonio Silva (19-7-1 MMA, 3-4-1 UFC) at UFC 193 in Australia, doesn’t try to portray himself as a nice guy early in life. He comes across as knowing he was an unrepentant villain in his younger days, but the lack of deeper introspection leaves the reader feeling like there are greater depths to plumb.

The transition from street fighter to kickboxer to mixed martial arts to PRIDE and later UFC star is interesting. Hunt’s journey reads as if he achieved his success in spite of himself.

There are periods of gambling and drug addiction, inflated ego, prison, violence, injuries, shady business dealings, money problems and issues with both PRIDE and the UFC that come into play during these times.

This is a harrowing period for Hunt, and without a hero, the book’s protagonist would almost certainly end up as a tragic figure.

“I was becoming an ogre – a dangerous rage-filled man free of joy or empathy or compassion,” Hunt writes.

The hero of the book is Julie, Hunt’s now-wife. When Hunt writes about her and what she – and later their children – mean to him, his life and his success, it’s as if a switch has been flipped. There’s lightness in the writing when he mentions Julie. It’s a noticeable change, and the tone conveys how she helped Hunt work through his past so he could enjoy his present and future.

By the end of the book, with the help of his wife and children, the frightened, beaten, scarred and tortured boy is replaced by an appreciative, reflective, happy man. It’s that long transformative journey that is the biggest enjoyment of Hunt’s autobiography.

When the book did come to a close, I was left thinking more please, as well as less please.

The desire for less came when Hunt discussed his professional fighting career. The descriptions of what happened in these fights seemed unnecessary when almost all of Hunt’s fights can be found online.

What Hunt was thinking during these fights is included, and that’s important, but describing the fights themselves slowed the flow of the writing and turned those sections into just another book about a fighter.

The want for more came with the more introspective sections of the book, the more open writing, where it didn’t feel like Hunt was hiding something, either unable or unwilling to peer behind doors he had closed years before. Hunt is a stoic man, and that hurts his story, but also leaves the door open for a second try at getting things right; much like Hunt did with how own life.

“Born to Fight” hits on a lot of points; it just doesn’t hit the important ones quite hard enough.

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