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"Otahuhu College, the best school of all."<\/p>\n
MMA legend Hunt told WWOS he played in the centres as a youngster but Tua confirmed he was not of the ball-playing variety.<\/p>\n
"Run it straight, run it straight! No sidestep, just run it straight," the 49-year-old laughed.<\/p>\n
READ MORE:<\/strong> Sparks fly between NRL star, 'Tyson' wanna-be<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n READ MORE:<\/strong> SBW's fan boy moment over childhood 'idol'<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n READ MORE:<\/strong> Chilling walk off warning for 'anxious' SBW<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n https:\/\/twitter.com\/StanSportAU\/status\/1587989339690405888?s=20&t=kmnJjntvqrYCs0h0TduILA<\/a><\/p>\n Instead of the NRL, the power-packed youngsters took their sporting talents into the fight game and became an inspiration to the Polynesian community in particular.<\/p>\n Both listed at 1.78m, they are two of the hardest hitting athletes ever.\ufeff<\/p>\n Tua, Hunt's "waterboy" for Saturday's fight against Sonny Bill Williams, humbly defers to his friend when asked who has the knockout edge.\ufeff<\/p>\n "I'll give that to Mark," he said.<\/p>\n "The only history we have is we used to play a punching machine game back home. I won a couple of times but then Mark went back and kicked it!"<\/p>\n Tua fashioned a formidable 52-5-2 record over his heavyweight career and fought Lennox Lewis for the world title in 2000.<\/p>\n His devastating left hook and durable chin are legendary \ufeffand Hunt enlisted his help for the showdown at the Aware Super Theatre<\/a>.<\/p>\n "It's a privilege and a honour to be asked to be part of it," Tua said.<\/p>\n For him to reach out – I have a lot of admiration and respect for both him and Sonny. They're both iconic in their fields and to be part of this event is amazing.<\/p>\n "I'm not going to tell the legend how to fight, he already knows how to fight. He knows his left from right so I'm not going to change anything. I'm just here for support."<\/p>\n And being in the enemy camp wasn't going to stop Williams approaching Tua to pay his respects<\/a> to "the uso" in between sparring sessions and media duties at Tony Mundine's gym in Redfern.\ufeff<\/p>\n The pair embraced and spoke together for several minutes.\ufeff<\/p>\n "Sharing a lot of stories about growing up in New Zealand and the opportunity to fight Mark. It's good to see him back in the ring," Tua said of Williams.<\/p>\n "He's iconic for the Polynesian community. When Sonny was playing league, everybody wanted to be a league player.<\/p>\n "When he played union, everyone wanted to be a rugby union player. Same with Mark Hunt – he smashed it out in K1 and became champion – everyone wanted to become K1 champion. Same with MMA and his battle in court with UFC – he's going up against a big giant. I have admiration and respect for him taking on that big fight because it's not a big fight for himself. It's about future generations that come through, it helps them."<\/p>\n There has been no trash talk between Williams and Hunt and the former has admitted he was initially reluctant to fight a fellow Samoan.<\/a><\/p>\n But Tua didn't think it would be difficult to flick the switch inside the ropes. \ufeff<\/p>\n "No, they're natural born fighters, they know what's expected of them. Every fight is a dangerous fight. You don't have to say things to promote the fight, just speak your heart and your mind.<\/p>\n "None of that matters for us, it's about doing your very best. In those ropes you become someone else."<\/p>\n For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n
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