The 2016 MMA National Olympic Teams: Australia

With the 2016 Summer Olympics scheduled for Aug. 5-21 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Sherdog.com staff and contributors sat down to put together hypothetical MMA Olympic teams for the following countries: United States, Canada, Japan, Great Britain, Russia, Mexico, Brazil, Sweden, Poland and Australia. This 10-part series will map out the yellow brick road to Rio de Janeiro for the men and women who call the cage home, Zika virus be damned.*** Australia has become a quiet powerhouse at the Olympics, ranking in the top 10 in the medal count in each of its last six appearances dating back to the 1992 Summer Games in Barcelona, Spain. That includes a 58-medal haul in 2000, with Sydney as the host city. No Olympian has done more to put Australia on the map than Ian Thorpe, who owns nine medals, five of them gold. He was at the height of his power as a 17-year-old at the 2000 Summer Olympics, where he stood atop the podium in the 400m freestyle, the 4x100m freestyle relay and the 4x200m freestyle relay, setting world records in each event. Thorpe, nicknamed the “Thorpedo,” went on to capture two more gold medals at the 2004 Summer Games in Athens, Greece, establishing an Olympic record in the 200m freestyle. Australia has enjoyed some success outside the pool, as well, claiming 11 combined medals in taekwondo, boxing, wrestling and judo. However, flyweight Lauren Burns remains the only Australian to strike gold in combat sports, the 12-time national taekwondo champion having done so in 2000. Assembling a hypothetical Australian MMA team to compete at the Olympics provides plenty of intrigue, especially in the heavyweight and middleweight divisions. There, Australia-based kiwis Mark Hunt and Robert Whittaker could make substantial noise, with their native New Zealand not fielding a squad. Hunt and Whittaker have excelled in tournament formats before, the former winning the 2001 K-1 World Grand Prix and the latter winning “The Ultimate Fighter: The Smashes.” Ultimate Fighting Championship veterans Anthony Perosh and Elvis Sinosic will handle the head coaching duties, overseeing a training staff that includes George Sotiropoulos, Soa Palelei, John Wayne Parr and Sam Greco.2016 Australia National MMA Team • Heavyweight: Mark Hunt • Light Heavyweight: Priscus Fogagnolo • Middleweight: Robert Whittaker • Welterweight: Kyle Noke • Lightweight: Jake Matthews • Featherweight: Rob Lisita • Bantamweight: Michael Tobin • Flyweight: Richie Vaculik • Women’s Bantamweight: Jessica-Rose Clark • Women’s Strawweight: Bec RawlingsHEAVYWEIGHT: Hunt had devolved into little more than an afterthought following a six-fight losing streak between July 1, 2006 and Sept. 25, 2010, his fall reaching its low point in an embarrassing 63-second submission loss to Sean McCorkle at UFC 119. He has gone 7-4-1 since in what can only be described as a late-career renaissance. The 42-year-old Hunt has beaten Ben Rothwell, Stefan Struve, “The Ultimate Fighter 10” winner Roy Nelson, former UFC titleholder Frank Mir and onetime EliteXC champion Antonio Silva in that 11-fight run, with his only defeats coming to Brock …

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