Australian UFC veteran Kyle Nike reveals fight fan Steve Irwin wanted MMA fight with Vin Diesel

Australian UFC veteran Kyle Noke has revealed how he used to train with ‘Crocodile Hunter’ Steve Irwin, who was a huge fan of mixed martial arts and wanted to fight megastar Vin Diesel.

Noke, who retired from the sport in 2016, was hired by Irwin as part of his personal security after the late Aussie icon became fascinated by the sport of MMA and wanted somebody to train with.

Australian UFC veteran Kyle Noke has revealed how he used to train with ‘Crocodile Hunter’ Steve Irwin, who was a huge fan of mixed martial arts and wanted to fight megastar Vin Diesel

Noke, who retired from the sport in 2016, was hired by Irwin as part of his personal security after the late Aussie icon became fascinated by the sport of MMA and wanted somebody to train with

Irwin built a cage for training MMA at the zoo and had Noke train with him every morning – and sometimes it got very physical.

‘When he first started to learn, he didn’t quite understand it,’ Noke told reporters on Saturday ahead of UFC 284 at RAC Arena in Perth.

‘He was like, ‘What happens if I just come charging at you though? If I just throw haymakers at you, are you still going to be able to get out of the way?’

‘So I said, ‘Well, you just come at me and I will see if I can strike you’, so he just came charging at me with haymakers.’

Irwin built a cage for training MMA at the zoo and had Noke (pictured left) train with him every morning – and sometimes it got very physical

Noke was forced to use his skills and defend himself from the Crocodile Hunter – who was the heavier man.

‘I was able to jab him and then put a right hand on him, which dropped him to a knee,’ the UFC veteran said.

‘Then he got up and charged at me again and, after the second time I dropped him, he’s like, ‘Maybe we just stick to training the technical stuff’.’

Noke became great friends with Irwin and said the quirky Queenslander showed considerable talent as a fighter – particularly at wrestling.

‘Steve loved training,’ said Noke.

‘Before he would do an interview, he would get me to punch him in the guts a few times because he didn’t want to talk to anyone, so that would get him hyped up for it.

Noke pictured near a large saltwater croc while working for Irwin

‘Then sometimes he would just come charging at me and ask me to knock him out a few times.

‘The man was an animal, he loved fighting.’

In 2019, Noke revealed that Irwin was so intrigued by the booming combat sport that he wanted to walk away from his TV work so he could have a charity bout against Vin Diesel.

‘He was willing to throw his whole career away just to have a fight and then we came up with the idea of having a charity fight – which still wasn’t okay with his producers at all. They still didn’t want it,’ Noke told Grange TV Podcast.

‘But I remember he made me go to the movies once … He said, ‘We’re going to watch a movie, it’s the Pacifier with Vin Diesel’. That’s a kids movie. He said, ‘Yeah, I wanna fight him though so I wanna size him up and see what he looks like.

Irwin helped Noke enormously with his own career, paying for the Dubbo-born fighter to travel overseas to train. Tragically he never got to see Noke compete in the UFC

‘So we went to watch The Pacifier – one of the worst movies I ever saw – but the whole idea was to size Vin Diesel up for a fight. He originally wanted to fight Wesley Snipes, but then he found out Wesley Snipes was small so after that it was Vin Diesel, let’s go.’

Irwin also helped Noke enormously with his own career, paying for the Dubbo-born fighter to travel overseas to train.

Tragically, Irwin died in 2006 after being pierced in the chest by a stingray barb while filming on the Great Barrier Reef and sadly never got to watch Noke compete in the UFC.