Having beaten world champs in the ring, it’s hard to believe Queenstown combat fighter/gym owner Rob Horrocks was once so shy he couldn’t interact with the local shopkeeper.

Raised on the mean streets of England’s Manchester, he was obsessed with boxing characters like Muhammad Ai — he had a full-length Ali poster in his bedroom.

“Pretty much my parents didn’t want me to be a boxer.”

However, his older brothers, who were Muay Thai fighters, convinced them to let him try this martial art instead.

At 12 he won his first fight after only four weeks’ training — “I won by just being stronger”.

Within his first year he was winning British and European amateur titles.

“I racked up, like, 100-150 fights quite quickly over the years and by the time I was 17 they put me up to start fighting professionally.

“My first pro fight I dropped the guy with a knee to the body, broke his ribs and he got up and I knocked him out with a right hand.”

He went to London and beat the local favourite, but then met his match against an experienced 27-year-old in Cork, Ireland, in a five-round bout.

“It was a really close fight but I was feeling his shots.”

Though concentrating on Muay Thai, Rob also got into boxing which helped him, he says.

“As a young man I guess I had a lot of energy to put into this, like, primal sport, and with Muay Thai it feels like you can kind of do anything,”

Having long been called ‘Roberto’ and idolising Mexican and Latin American fighters, he adopted just for fun the handle, ‘Roberto El Hurto’.

Rob’s biggest success in the UK was a K1 kickboxing win against Alex Bublea who became a Muay Thai world champ.

After a satisfactory school career where he struggled with English due to dyslexia, he scored some industrial-type jobs before becoming a lifeguard and pool attendant.

“They put me through some gym fitness qualifications.”

He exercised his travel bug by taking a job in the United States looking after children and adults with disabilities before taking a live-in care position back in the UK.
The travel bug remained as he travelled to Australia and the US between boxing and kickboxing bouts in the UK.

Rob then got a working holiday visa to NZ, having been inspired by a family visit to Rotorua when he was about 15.

“As a young lad interested in fighting and competing, the Māori culture, the warrior sort of spirit, just captivated me.

“When I saw the haka I just thought, ‘that is amazing and people celebrate it here’ — it’s almost a dirty thing to be a fighter in some countries like the UK.”

Seeking out the ‘adventure capital’, Queenstown, in about 2014, Rob landed housekeeping and landscaping jobs before Alpine Heath & Fitness took him on as a fitness attendant — “I made some programmes for them”.

He then became GM of Industrial Fitness on the condition he could run Muay Thai and boxing programmes which turned out many title-holders.

He decided the best way to show his students the commitment and discipline that was needed was to show them himself.

“I started fighting and suddenly remembered how intense it is and how much it hurts.”

Over ’21 and  ’22 he won the ‘King in the Ring’ 68kg kickboxing title in Auckland, then, eventually, the Apex Muay Thai Warrior Series after flitting between 64kg and 68kg.

Winning the latter, “that kind of really put a stamp on the fact I was the best in lightweight and welterweight in NZ Muay Thai and kickboxing”.

Then, in ’24, he had his best result, taking out the 150lbs Patong Stadium title in Thailand in the Lumpinee Boxing Stadium — “that’s literally like the Mecca for Muay Thai”.

As a youngster, his trainer had asked him, “what do you want to do with Muay Thai?”

“I said, ‘I want to be a Lumpinee champion’, and he just looked at me — it’s like a kid saying ‘I’m going to be an astronaut and go to the moon’.

“The whole experience was just really surreal.

“I’ve beaten multiple world champions in kickboxing and Muay Thai, but unfortunately I never got the chance to fight for a world title.

“But this [was proof] I’m definitely on that level.”

Rob says it gave him recognition in Muay Thai circles — “they’ll say, ‘you’re my dad’s favourite fighter’, which is maybe a sign of how old I am”.

Meanwhile, after about eight years at Industrial Fitness he set up Hurto Gym at Arthurs Point early last year — his goal being to build a team of international-level fighters, as well as providing a training space for anyone to enjoy.

“Starting a business is not easy, it’s tested me to the core but it is getting better step by step.”

He’s fortunate for support from his partner Jules Vassalos who is also a very good fighter and coach.

As to getting back in the ring, Rob, who is now 37, says he is busy running his business and training his fighters.

“But I’m keen — I’ve definitely got another couple of good fights left in me.

“I’m a bit on old man fighter now, but I’ve got the experience and I’m fit and strong — I like training alongside all these young fellas and showing them that anything’s possible, you know.”

scoop@scene.co.nz