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Mark Hunt

Mark Hunt was not supposed to succeed. He, his brothers and sister were victims of horrific acts of child abuse and every community that should have safeguarded him, from his church to his friends to his own mother, looked the other way. As a traumatized child in school he was ostracized by his peers and thrown out on the streets by authority figures. As a juvenile delinquent, he was repeatedly thrown in prison and at one point served a nine-month sentence as a teenager for stealing a pair of shoes. After serving a second sentence he nearly went right back: A dispute in front of a nightclub turned into a wild brawl that saw him singlehandedly knock out half the men in the fight, but as police closed in he was grabbed and pulled safely inside by one of the bouncers--a kickboxer named Sam Marsters, who was astonished by his talent for violence and wanted him to consider professional fighting instead of jail.

A week later, Hunt won his first legal fight. The prize was a six-pack of beer.

Mark Hunt was not supposed to succeed. Local kickboxing promoters didn't really take the street thug-turned-combatant with barely any formal training seriously and saw him as a liability best used to promote bigger, more talented acts. He might never have left the local circuit were it not for a Turkish promoter named Tarik Solak, who convinced the then-expanding K-1 to copromote kickboxing events in Australia and New Zealand. The first K-1 Oceania Grand Prix took place in the year 2000, and K-1's favorite for the tournament was Rony Sefo, younger brother of international star Ray "Sugarfoot" Sefo. Instead, Hunt upset the bracket, won the tournament, and punched his ticket to K-1's primary circuit.

He lost his very first match after Jerome Le Banner battered him.

Mark Hunt was not supposed to succeed. K-1 saw him as a mid-tier fighter and booked him into the K-1 Melbourne tournament in 2001 after he won his second consecutive Oceania tournament, but he was beat out of the Melbourne, New Zealand and Fukuoka tournaments--yet still won the latter when the man who'd beaten him, ironically the aforementioned Ray Sefo, was too injured to continue. Once again Mark Hunt had qualified for the K-1 World Grand Prix, and this time he took the tournament by storm. In one night he knocked out previous nemesis Le Banner, shocked the highly-regarded Stefan Leko, and outfought Brazil's Francisco Filho. The man no one took seriously, for one shining moment, was the best kickboxer in the world.

He wouldn't repeat the performance, but Pride saw dollar signs in him--and his weaknesses.

Mark Hunt was not supposed to succeed. Rather than developing the raw kickboxer with almost no training, Pride threw him to the wolves: His first fight was against gold medal judoka Hidehiko Yoshida, who submitted him with some difficulty, and after one superheavyweight showdown he was then booked into back-to-back contests against Wanderlei Silva and Mirko Cro Cop. Once again, Hunt was being used as a sacrificial lamb. Once again, Hunt defied expectations by winning. By 2006 he was 5-1 in Pride and no longer considered a joke. But he was still a kickboxer at heart, and Josh Barnett proved far too much for him in Pride's openweight tournament, and despite putting up a deeply surprising battle against Fedor Emelianenko that at one point saw Hunt nearly submitting him, when Pride folded he was 5-3 in his career, entering his mid-thirties, listless and plagued by his personal demons. Training partners recalled him disappearing into days of alcohol, meth and gambling, and it led to what seemed to be the end of his career: He lost four consecutive fights, all within the first round.

But he had unfinished business. The UFC was legally required to finish out his Pride contract, which he'd demanded rather than accepting a $450,000 payout, and in 2010, after two years of legal wrangling, he made his UFC debut.

Mark Hunt was not supposed to succeed. His debut was a minute-long submission loss to Sean McCorkle, as essentially everyone expected. But behind the scenes, Hunt's life was in order: His wife had forced him into therapy, he had started training with a real mixed martial arts camp in American Top Team, and as he approached 37 he was in the best shape of his life. When he next appeared, Hunt looked like a faster, stronger, much more well-rounded fighter. His hard work led him to a four-fight win streak that famously introduced his trademark walkoff knockouts to the mixed martial arts public, and even failed efforts against Junior dos Santos and Antonio Silva made him a fan favorite for his incredible power and style. By 2014 he was once again fighting the best heavyweight in the world in Fabricio Werdum for the championship of the world, and once again coming closer to victory than anyone expected--and once again came up ultimately short.

He fought for the UFC for another four years, but he never reached those heights again. He had passed 40, his prime was long over, and fighting had passed him by. He left the UFC in 2018 with an entirely even record: 8 wins, 8 losses, 1 draw, 1 no contest.

Mark Hunt was not supposed to succeed. He was a child devastated by his own parents, a delinquent forgotten by the system, a street brawler martial artists refused to take seriously, a kickboxer too one-dimensional for MMA, an addict too damaged for competition, a relic too old for the UFC. He lost more than he won at 13-14-1 (1) and he never won an MMA championship.

And he's one of the greatest heavyweights in combat sports history. With all of those obstacles in his path, he still won the most prestigious kickboxing title in the sport, he still climbed to the absolute pinnacle of heavyweight mixed martial arts twice in two separate eras, and he gained one of the most loyal followings in martial arts. From nothing, he became a force that stayed relevant in heavyweight fighting for twenty years.

Mark Hunt was not supposed to succeed, and he did, because damn the odds and damn your demons.

Moveset, stats, logic and four attires (Pride 31 vs Nishijima / UFC Fight Night vs Lewis / UFC 160 vs dos Santos / K-1 World Grand Prix 2001 vs Filho). Murderous uppercut.