Nothing to Lose: Mark Hamilton

Fighter profile of Mark Hamilton by Grazi Akbar

By most accounts, Mark Hamilton would be considered a loser.

A big one. Literally- he’s 6’ 3” and 265 lbs.

Anyone with a passing look into the fighter’s life would probably say that things are not going so well.  They would be correct.  A part time job, a vengeful ex-wife, no car, and a tiny apartment that is barely livable and barely within the city limits of Las Vegas.  Not the dream life that the 25 year old was told he would have. 

Broken promises are a recurring theme in Hamilton’s life and the big reason he finds himself in the typically ‘fighter who fights’ situation.  A narrative that we’ve seen played out over and over in books and movies and television:  Fighter wins, Fighter encounters tragedy, fighter trains, fighter overcomes, fighter goes home happy.  This is not the story of Mark Hamilton.  He’s been a loser from the get go.

“I guess I’m pretty good at being the whipping post,” Hamilton pushed out of his mouth in between sets of push-ups.  “I paid a lot of bills by letting guys beat me.  You can make another guy look really good by knocking out a 6’3” 265lb dude… “

Hamilton is a ringer.  A paid fall guy who has made a living from getting beat. 

“Here’s some shocking news for you:  Your favorite fighter probably isn’t as good as his record says.  I mostly worked guys in bars and in basements of buildings- never did anything that was recorded.  Places where the fights weren’t exactly… legal… or sanitary. 

But occasionally I was offered a big TV ‘deal’ to ‘help’ a guy out… I didn’t take it even though the money was good.”

Hamilton drew the line at national exposure.  The money wasn’t worth taking a dive on national TV.

“I had to save some kind of face, man… Getting paid to be bait at a crappy Vegas dive bar is one thing.  Being bait and having it documented is another… at some point I just got sick of it.”

So, why the wait?  Why not come out swinging from the get go as a legitimate fighter?

“I never had any formal training.  One night I was having my customary post-midterm whiskey at Dino’s and a guy in a suit approached me.  He had a thick accent and a thick wad of cash.  A few hours later I was wiping blood off my face in a bathroom and I had an extra five hundred in my pocket.  Lot of money for a broke law student…”

Mark Hamilton never graduated from the University of Nevada.  After making it to college on a football scholarship, Hamilton took his education more seriously than making a living on the field.  An idea that did not sit to well with his high school sweetheart turned wife.   Hamilton found himself divorced before the age of 24 soon after deciding not to pursue playing football professionally. 

“She was expecting a lifetime meal ticket and that’s pretty much that.  I decided that if this was the kind of person who only wanted to be married to a football player then it was never going to work.  I was never NFL bound, but the CFL could have been an option- I met with a few arena teams too.  The irony is, I didn’t want to risk concussions and injuries… the guy who got beat up for a living didn’t want to risk getting hurt.  Now I’m turning back full circle.  Fighting for money… fighting for money so that I don’t have to fight…”

There’s no doubt about it:  Mark Hamilton is a loser.  A purposeful loser. 

Is this the kind of loser that you can root for?  Is he the maker of his own situation- or is he the creator of his future?

Turnaround stories are rare in Las Vegas.  The house always wins.  Mark Hamilton isn’t playing with house money. 

But he is betting on himself.

Article views: 105
» Donate to this author