Mark Hunt

I always remember my dad's blue overalls and the blue overcoat he wore in winter, and I remember my mum's big old Afro. Sometimes, though, in my memories, smudges have replaced their faces.

My memory is not that good anymore.

I've had a pretty chequered past, you know, as a kid, as a troubled kid.

My whole career's been an underdog's.

I've built a career in one of the toughest, most ruthless industries in the world. You can't do that unless you're completely with it.

Everyone wants to be UFC champion, and that's my goal and my dream.

All the guys at this top level, they're pretty much dangerous all over the place. If you're not good all over the place, you'll be in a little bit of trouble. It's hard to swim at the top end if you're only good at one thing.

Home was never a safe place for me. I felt safer on the streets.

It's the fight game, and everyone loses. You win some, you lose some. You just try to get back up on the horse.

People always say its an aggressive and bad sport and just like street fighting, but it's not the same thing. You go into work at the gym every day, and it takes away from being an aggressive person in public. You're training every day, and you're losing that aggression for the public.

Most of the neighbours didn't like our parents, and they particularly gave Dad a very wide berth. We kids didn't have that luxury.

A few months before my dad died, his eyes had started to go, and his skin was turning green. When he finally went to hospital, he was diagnosed with late-stage pancreatic cancer. None of us kids knew why the old man ignored the doctors and refused their help, but none of us were surprised, either.