The incredible shrinking Mark Hunt
It’s never a good sign when a professional athlete refuses to take off his shirt when a camera is around….
It’s never a good sign when a professional athlete refuses to take off his shirt when a camera is around. Even with that disclaimer, the training footage depicting Mark Hunt that has been circulating shows an obviously leaner fighter taking his UFC debut fairly seriously.
Granted, Hunt doesn’t have much choice in the matter: If he doesn’t drop the excess flab that has hung over his kickboxing trunks since the 1990s, he won’t slide under the 265-pound weight cap. But it’s nice to know someone finally is challenging the idea perpetuated by bloated athletes like Roy Nelson that it’s possible to carry a sloppy body fat percentage and still be taken seriously.
Nelson is a good fighter, as is Hunt, but there is zero benefit to hauling a gut around in a sport as demanding on a fighter’s anaerobic activity as MMA. Can it be used to “control” opponents on the ground who have trouble moving the excess weight? I guess: Hunt kept side control on Fedor Emelianenko for an impressively long time. But actual technique would accomplish the same thing.
