Rotorua's famous arm wrestler Maateiwarangi Heta-Morris didn't care about losing his latest competition because as soon as he met Arnold Schwarzenegger "nothing else mattered".
The world's largest annual multi-sport festival was held in Hong Kong for the first time over the weekend.
An initiative of Arnold Schwarzenegger, the inaugural Arnold Classic Asia Multi-Sport Festival featured live sports, health and fitness workshops and activities and sports stars.
"I was invited for a spar match. I was put up against one of the best in the world, Lars Rorbakken.
"His level is way beyond a lot of people in the pacific. He bought a mountain and built a cave in it just to train in it. He takes his training very seriously.
"We had a long battle, I didn't think I was going to hold him off as long as I could."
Mr Heta-Morris said a group of people holding hands walked towards him during his match, they surrounded him and then he realised Schwarzenegger was coming to watch.
"He was into the match hard out. He's very humble. It was awesome that he took the time to go around and watch. After that nothing else mattered.
"When I met him I just thought, 'I'm touching the terminators hand', you never think you're going to meet Arnold."
Mr Heta-Morris said he was very thankful to his sponsors for getting him to the tournament.
If you would like to learn more about the tournament head to www.arnoldclassicasia.com.
For more articles from this region, go to Rotorua Daily Post
