Photo via UFC.com
Former K-1 kickboxer Mark ‘Super Samoan’ Hunt (7-7) was given a chance by the Ultimate Fighting Championship to take the money and run without even stepping into the Octagon. This was all part of a previous contract that Hunt had with the former PRIDE promotion, which was bought by the UFC and who felt they would sooner buy-out the fighter rather than put him on an event.
One of the reasons the UFC likely had not wanted Hunt in the cage was the five fight losing streak he brought with him, as well as his physique, which was as much as 290 lbs for some fights.
Despite agreeing to let him fight, it looked as though they were right about not wanting him in the UFC after Hunt dropped his first fight to Sean McCorkle at UFC 119.
Now though with all of the work Hunt has done with American Top Team, coming in at 260 lbs for his fight with Ben Rothwell Saturday night at UFC 135, it appears that the ‘Super Samoan’ desire to fight was the best decision.
With a KO win over Chris Tuchscherer at UFC 127, and last nights unanimous decision win over Ben Rothwell, who most had picked to win easily at UFC 135 in Denver, UFC President Dana White made it a point to bring out Hunt for the post-fight press conference to talk about his journey.
“I actually asked Mark to come to this press conference,” White said Saturday night. “Many of you probably don’t know, or some of you do know, when we bought PRIDE, he came as part of the PRIDE deal. It was back and forth, and basically I was like…we’ll just pay you off what we owed you in the PRIDE deal.’ Mark Hunt said, ‘No, I want to come, and I want to fight.’”
Hunt who is apparently not one for words spoke little about what its taken for him to get to this point in his career, simply noting that it was a long journey and that “it’s been hard” getting to this spot.
“It’s been a long journey, like I said, just to get here. I’m still…plugging away at it. It’s been hard. It was a really hard fight. Ben Rothwell, he’s really tough, right. I threw a lot of heavy shots at him, real hard shots, but he was still there. I was lucky to acclimatize early.”