A former K-1 Grand Prix champion in 2001, Mark Hunt made the move to mixed martial arts in 2004, quickly becoming a star in Japan’s PRIDE and Dream promotions as he fought the likes of Mirko Cro Cop, Wanderlei Silva, Josh Barnett, Fedor Emelianenko, Alistair Overeem, and Gegard Mousasi. And though he emerged from his time in Japan with a 5-6 record, Hunt’s appeal never waned, simply because he was willing to fight all comers at anytime.
“That’s just what fighters do,” Hunt said in 2010. “I’ve been doing that my whole life from thousand seat arenas into 30-40,000 seat arenas. It’s mind blowing, but that’s what a fighter does to get ahead. You don’t get many opportunities in this lifetime, so whenever they come along, you just can’t push them aside. It’s hard for some fighters coming up, and they might say, ‘Aw, I’m not ready for this.’ But at the end of the day, we’re never gonna be ready.” (Laughs) “But when I’m in there, I’m in there a hundred percent and however it goes, it goes. I’m a fighter, and when the opportunity comes for me to fight anyone, anywhere, anytime, I’ll do it.”
Needless to say, anticipation was high for Hunt’s Octagon debut in September of 2010, but a 63-second submission loss to Sean McCorkle at UFC 119 placed him in a precarious position career-wise. As he put it when asked about that time, “Mark Hunt was one that wasn’t even wanted. He wasn’t good enough to be here.”
A walk off knockout of Chris Tuchscherer in his adopted hometown of Sydney, Australia got him back in the win column though, thrilling fans and kicking off the resurgence that has kept him among the best heavyweights in the world ever since.
