Born to Fight (29 page)
In 1999 I fought Chris Chrisopoulides. I may have lost the first five rounds but I kept getting back up and knocked Chris out in the sixth round. From back then to now, I never give up.
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In UFC 135 in 2011 I went up against Ben Rothwell in Denver, USA. Rothwell was a fighter, an athlete and a talent, and I got over him through sheer bloody hard work.
Dutch fighter Stefan Struve is a full foot taller than me. On 3 March 2013 in Saitama, Japan, I literally had to jump up with my left hooks to hit him in the face, but I did manage to land a few good ones. I won the fight and Stefan later tweeted an X-ray that showed a jaw so broken you could put your little finger through it.
After the Struve fight, the UFC asked if I’d fill in and fight Junior dos Santos, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. They only had to ask me once. I thought about the legendary battles that had taken place there – Tyson versus Holyfield, De La Hoya versus Mayweather, Pacquiao versus Hatton, now Mark Hunt against Junior dos Santos. The surrealism reached its peak when I met Tyson at the weigh-in and saw him in the crowd.
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My fight in Brisbane on 7 December 2013 against Antônio ‘Big Foot’ Silva was epic. When I finished the third round I felt heat in both hands. I had three possibly broken limbs, a cut-up face – my blond hair had turned pink – and there was one more round to go. The fight ended in a majority draw but Dana White tweeted, ‘Both Hunt and Silva win FON [Fight of the Night] and both get their win bonus and I might buy them both their own private ISLANDS!!!! Sickest HW fight ever!!!’ I’m still waiting on that island.
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Getting pumped before my fight against Roy Nelson in Japan on 20 September 2014. Roy was the one man in the UFC who made me look svelte.
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He’s a big bloke, Fabrício Werdum, tall and experienced. I didn’t have much time to prepare for UFC 180 in Mexico City on 15 November 2014. Some people were saying I wouldn’t be able to hit him. I was too short, and Fab was too good. I was too old, too fat. I took the first round of that fight, but I got knocked out in the second. Clean. Well done, Fab, you got me good.
I love being a dad and I love being a husband. Home is where my life happens now. I never thought I’d find a place where I could be more comfortable than in a ring, standing across from a man with his fists raised, but I’m slowly making my way to other people’s version of normal life. I look at these little smiling kids of mine and I look at my wife and I know I am living a good life.
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Published in Australia and New Zealand in 2015
by Hachette Australia
(an imprint of Hachette Australia Pty Limited)
Level 17, 207 Kent Street, Sydney NSW 2000
Copyright © Mark Hunt 2015
This book is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism or review permitted under the
Copyright Act 1968
, no part may be stored or reproduced by any process without prior written permission. Enquiries should be made to the publisher.
A CIP catalogue record of this book is available from the National Library of Australia.
978 0 7336 3462 8
978 0 7336 3461 1 (ebook edition)
Cover design by Christabella Designs
Cover images courtesy of Getty Images