Former K-1 World Grand Prix champion Mark Hunt (5-6) will get his chance inside the octagon now that the UFC has signed him. The 36-year-old fighter realizes that in the past he failed to prepare properly for fights in the past and that this failure contributed to his five straight losses in MMA, as well as his last loss in K-1 against Semmy Schilt in 2008.
Now the “Super Samoan” is looking to make the most of his upcoming opportunity at UFC 119 against Sean McCorkle this coming September by preparing properly for this fight.
“I never had to make weight before. I never gave a damn what I ate. I’ve already stopped eating KFC, chocolate, that stuff,” Hunt says. “I’ve got a personal trainer, never had one of them before. I’m not a big person, I’m only 5-foot-10 or something.”
“It’s been two or three years of bad training for me. Not my training partners, but how hard I trained,” Hunt confesses. “I’m looking to go overseas to train for the first time, to really get some good training partners. If I do things like I should do them, it shouldn’t matter who I’m facing, ever.”
“It is what it is now. I wish I could change the way I did things now, but I’m here for a reason,” says Hunt. “For me now, I know this is my last chance. I won a K-1 world title, then I fought MMA. I wanted to win, but I didn’t have that drive to be a champion. I feel like now, I really want to be an MMA champion.”
Check out the rest of the interview with Hunt over at Sherdog.com, but don’t expect the “Super Somoan” to reveal anything about being signed by the UFC carrying a five fight losing streak into the octagon. Guess we’ll have to wait till after UFC 119 to find out.
HT: Sherdog.com