Mark Hunt

Mark Hunt is a mixed martial artist and a kickboxer hailing from New Zealand. Popularly renowned as the "Super Samoan", Mark was born March 23, 1974 born in Auckland, New Zealand. Mark Hunt is believed to possess the best chin in contemporary mixed martial arts and kickboxing and generally voted as possessing the best chin in kickboxing by the connoisseurs at International Kickboxer.

He was the first non-European kickboxer to win K-1 World GP tournament in 2001. In MMA, he holds notable wins over Mirko Filipovic, Wanderlei Silva and Tsuyoshi Kohsaka. Mark Hunt is comparatively short as a heavyweight kickboxer positioned at merely 177 cm and weighing in at 127 kgs. He was asked to vie for muay thai following the event when bouncers accidentally noticed Hunt in a fight on the street.

Mark Hunt kicked off his K-1 career by tasting triumph in the qualifying tournament of Oceania 2000 and was subsequently summoned to brawl in Japan alongside the world's best for an opportunity to proceed to compete in the K-1 World Grand Prix. Mark's foremost opponent was the highly respected fighter Jerome Le Banner from France, who unfalteringly defeated Hunt in three rounds. Still encouraged, Hunt revisited K-1 the subsequent year and succeeded in the Oceania tournament yet again.

Hunt, in 2002 was vanquished by Croation kickboxer, Mirko "Cro-Cop" Filipovic at the Nagoya Grand Prix. He next proceeded to Paris to brawl Le Banner yet once over in a keenly anticipated match up. Le Banner was fighting with the attendance of his home audience, knocked Hunt down in round two however being knocked down in return a few moments afterward. In the closing stages of that round, Mark was eventually knocked down for a second time by the commanding French. Amidst the cycles, the towel was thrown in as Mark Hunt was unable to continue.

Hunt is presently a competitor in mixed martial art proceedings in PRIDE, and resides in Sydney. Hunt's pioneer fight was pasted at the hands of Hidehiko Yoshida by submission. At Shockwave 2005, Hunt subjugated Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic by split decision, taking revenge of his earlier beating to Mirko in K-1. At the PRIDE 31 Unbreakable event, Hunt overcame Yosuke Nishijima in round three with a stinging one-two punch. His subsequent fight was in the Pride's 2006 Open Weight competition on May 5th, 2006. In round two of the Total Elimination Absolute event tournament, he was subjugated by Barnett's enhanced grappling, in due course faltering to the Kimura arm-lock approximately two and a half minutes after the first round bell. Mark was vanquished to Fedor Emelianenko who was the Pride Heavyweight Champion at PRIDE Shockwave 2006 by a Kimura submission. Although he restricted Emelianenko for the majority of the fight, resourcefully countering an arm-bar initially in the encounter and tried to harness a pair of Americana's, he notwithstanding came short to Emelianenko's expert submission abilities.

Mark Hunt also plays tennis, in addition to his martial arts training.