World champion kickboxer Zane 'Hybrid' Hopman will contest his first professional
tournament at the King in the Ring eight-man Cruiserweight Eliminator on Saturday in a televised broadcast to a transtasman audience of more than 20 million viewers.
The 23-year-old Masterton fighter will travel to the ASB Stadium in Auckland for the cruiserweight showdown tomorrow night, with his corner team set to include Fortitude Thai Boxing Gym head coach Bryce Baron, fellow fighter and long-time friend Rhys Richards and boxing coach John Kamo.
He also has an entourage of friends and family travelling to the tournament, which is the tenth in the series.
The bouts will be drawn using a new format and televised on Sky Sport in New Zealand and for the first time, the King in the Ring will be screened live on Fuel TV and replayed on Fox, to a potential audience of more than 20 million viewers in Australia and New Zealand, according to King in the Ring promoter Arna Suttie.
Under the revised format, there will be four quarter-final match-ups drawn on the night from two pools of fighters, who will join battle under K-1 rules over three rounds of three minutes' duration each. The purse for the last man standing is understood to be worth up to $15,000.