Hayden Watt and Shuriken Martial Arts new comers to ICNZ, feature on Stuff.co.nz and North Shore Times Advertiser.  They enter ICNZ with an impressive 6 competitors.

Mixed martial arts convert Hayden Watt used to spend his nights drinking. Now he spends them at the dojo.

A foundation student of Shuriken NZ in Birkenhead, Watt, 21, has transformed his partying lifestyle over the past seven months.

This weekend at the ICNZ 9 Tournament held at the Auckland Boxing Association Watt hopes to show the skills that he has picked up from his South African instructors Jason Vorster and Strini Naidoo.

Mixed martial arts is full contact combat using a number of different techniques from the across the martial arts spectrum.

“It is a mixture of every type of fighting, all styles and not limited to one style,” Vorster says.

Participants can do anything except head butt, punch the groin or eye gouge.

“New Zealand hasn’t even felt mixed martial arts yet,” Vorster says of the sport which is relatively new to this community.

Never knowing what the next training will entail keeps Watt hooked.

Having tried 12 different sports and not stuck with them, Watt would instead spend his spare time drinking to excess with friends.

“I wish this was here when I was 12 or 14. It would have kept me out of trouble,” Watt says.

“My diet has completely changed and I have routine in my life now.”

The son of a mixed martial arts master and with a background in karate, Vorster knows the benefits of being involved in martial arts.

“It teaches self-discipline and control,” he says.

“It’s not just for fighting, it is for getting fit and losing weight. You don’t even need to spar.”

During his fighting career Vorster won the South African Kyokushin Karate title and became South African Kickboxing Champion.

Now he trains North Harbour rugby players for core strength and has been the wrestling coach for the Springboks and Sharks rugby teams.

Vorster hopes to “keep kids off the streets” with an initiative targeting eight to 14-year-olds with free classes in mixed martial arts.