Hamilton cage fighter taking on world

By day Luke "The Juggernaut" Jumeau beats dents out of cars and at night he fights in cages.

The 24-year-old Hamilton panelbeater faces his biggest fight this weekend as he battles it out for the mixed martial art welterweight title, against Aucklander Jaques Marsters.

He hasn't lost a battle yet and is confident he will continue his winning streak on Saturday night as he competes for the Supremacy Fighting Championship at the West Wave Waitakere City Aquatic Centre in Auckland.

"I am real confident - 100 per cent. I know I'm going to win.

"You always have doubt, but you just try to fight the doubt in your mind and turn it into positive. I've had a real hard fight before and took a lot of shots but I still won. I know what it would feel like to lose."

Securing the title would be a triumph for the former Fraser High School student, who has his sights on competing in Australia, Hong Kong and eventually the Ultimate Fighter Championships in the United States.

"Pretty much I want to close this chapter, conquer my country and move on."

The young cage fighter has worked as a panel beater at Monteith and Parker in Frankton since he was 17 but would eventually like to fight fulltime.

"It's hard because the sport is quite new in New Zealand even though it's big in the world. You just need to find sponsorships and things so you can train fulltime."

He trains between one to four hours daily and as well as practising martial arts he works out at the gym and runs.

Mr Jumeau said he was "a bit of a hooligan" when he was younger. He got into kick boxing, then worked his way up to a black belt in martial arts.

He started cage fighting, which is also known as mixed martial arts and combines tae kwan do, brazilian jiu jitsu and muay thai, six years ago so he could enter into competitions.

His highly competitive nature and inspiration in the form of a US-produced reality show called The Ultimate Fighter he saw on TV a few years ago have kept him wanting to move up in the sport.

This year he had the chance to audition for the show in Las Vegas and reached the welterweight finals.

He missed out on living in a house with 16 other fighters and competing for the title after producers decided to run with the lightweight class instead.

But the ambitious fighter still plans to return to the US and compete - he just needs to win the Kiwi title first.