UFC heavyweight Mark Hunt spoke recently with new Zealand’s Nine to Noon, ahead of his rematch with Anthony ‘Bigfoot’ Silva at UFC 193 on Saturday. Their first fight is considered by many to be the best heavyweight fight in UFC history.
During the interview Hunt explained that “Martial arts saved my life.” He has detailed his harrowing childhood in his recently published autobiographyBorn to Fight. The fighter had done two stints in jail, with the prospect of many more, when an astute trainer saw him in a street fight, and set him on a different path.
New Zealand news has the story.
“When I was asked by the publishers to write the story, I said no three or four times. I didn’t want to air my dirty laundry in the public, I’m not like that, I’m a private person.”
could help other people who might suffer from abuse or depression, he stepped up.
“When they said I could help others, I just said, ‘yeah, of course’. I’ve been given a platform with the UFC so I might as well share my story. I wasn’t comfortable sitting with Ben and talking about it until I was sure my sister was okay with it, so I just let him call her and that’s where it started.”
“I didn’t want to be a fighter, and I didn’t know I was going to be one. I was in jail a couple of times and I was probably heading back there for a long time. But martial arts saved my life and some of the choices I made with it.
“People always say its an aggressive and bad sport, and just like street fighting, but it’s not the same thing. You go into work at the gym every day and it takes away from being an aggressive person in public. You’re training every day and you’re losing that aggression for the public.”
Hunt said he had learned to take 10 minutes at the end of the training session to get out of the fighting head space, and into his role as a loving father.
“It’s not like I don’t make mistakes, and always made mistakes and it’s always a work in progress.”
“I’m 41 and I’m still running the gauntlet of prize fighting. I’m at the end of my career and can’t recover as well as the others, so if it ends on sunday night, then I’m okay with that, because I’ve done a lot of things other fighters haven’t done.”
With the help of his wife and four children, and faith, Hunt has become a different person. If Mark Hunt retires Sunday, he leaves the sport far better for his effort, and the sport leaves him better. That’s a pretty cool hand.
