Soa Palelei
| Soa Palelei | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
12 July 1977 Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia |
| Other names | The Hulk |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Ethnicity | Tongan |
| Height | 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) |
| Weight | 264 lb (120 kg; 18.9 st) |
| Division |
Heavyweight Super Heavyweight |
| Reach | 81.0 in (206 cm) |
| Fighting out of | Perth, Western Australia, Australia |
| Team | Team Hulk |
| Rank | Black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu |
| Years active | 2002–2015 |
| Mixed martial arts record | |
| Total | 27 |
| Wins | 22 |
| By knockout | 18 |
| By submission | 4 |
| Losses | 5 |
| By knockout | 3 |
| By submission | 1 |
| By decision | 1 |
| Website | http://www.soathehulk.com/ |
| Mixed martial arts record from Sherdog | |
Soa Palelei (born 12 July 1977) is an Australian retired mixed martial artist. He competed in the Heavyweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, and has also appeared in PRIDE and Impact FC. He is known for his aggressive style, all but one of his fights have ended in a stoppage.
Born in 1977, Newcastle, New South Wales, of Tongan descent, Palelei started his fighting career at an early age. Wrestling was his first choice in the earlier years and nearly saw him compete for Australia at the Olympics in Sydney. Paleli's interest quickly grew in the arena of martial arts and from there his love of the mixed martial arts grew.
Palelei is married to his childhood sweetheart Adriana Palelei. They have 3 children and currently reside in Perth. Adrianna can be seen at each of his bouts right there cageside cheering her husband on. Palelei says he cannot recall ever getting into street scraps as a kid, and, remarkably, doesn’t like confrontation out of the ring. His sporting prowess started with basketball, then moved to rugby, while he also trained in freestyle and Greco wrestling, followed by Brazilian jiu jitsu. His father took him to get his first tattoo at 15, a rite of passage that would be repeated through milestones in his life, the patterns portraying significant Tongan symbols.
Coming from a school of hard knocks helped to prepare Palelei for the fight arena. His parents had exposed him to the tough plantation life in Tonga as a young child. Then he was sent to live with an uncle in NSW where he was given regular beatings. Having gone through this has made Palelei want to be able to give back and use his platform to do so, Palelei has a mentoring program called Hulk Kids MMA in which he mentors teens on every aspect of life, combined with training and diet tips this program is available for schools and community groups.
Palelei was signed to Penguin Books and is in the midst of writing a memoir about his childhood how he came up from nothing to being in the worlds largest MMA organisation the UFC, his book is due to be released mid year 2016, this will be the first of other books to come.
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