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Letele, who has gained a cult following in New Zealand, was in Melbourne to watch good friend Mark Hunt fight at UFC 193 and said he was waiting to fly home when Lomu came to say hello.
“We were at the airport waiting to board and he came down from business lounge and gave me a hug,” Letele told Sportal.
“I fought his brother about a year ago, so he just came down and gave me a hug and said hello.
“It was just a quick chat and a hug – he was there with his beautiful kids. I wanted to ask for a photo but I was too shy.
“I saw him again at Auckland Airport loading his bags – and they were big bags and he seemed fine…it’s just such a shock.”
Letele fought Jonah’s brother John on the undercard of Joseph Parker’s fight with Sherman Williams in October 2014.
Letele had never met Lomu at the time, but said he was gracious and fully supportive of his brother.
“It was just over a year ago and he was a big supporter of the fight and to motivate his brother to lose some weight," he said.
“His brother was trying to have a baby at the time and he’s now in my fitness motivation group. We’re friends now and we meet up to do training every now and then...it’s just really sad.
“I was really just in awe of him around the fight and he was really nice and really funny which made it hard to talk it up at the fight, knowing who Jonah is.”
Like almost every Kiwi kid of a certain age, Letele says he idolised Lomu growing up.
“He was definitely one of my heroes, and looking at what he’s done from growing up in the same environment as I grew up, he was just a huge motivation," said Letele.
“I was a league person but only watched rugby because of him. I always wanted to watch games he was playing.
“He was from Mangere which is where we were from, so we were from the same background and they were just a working class family.”
The shock of Lomu’s passing was intensified for Letele after their brief meeting at the airport where the boxer said Lomu looked “in fine spirits.
“You never would’ve known. Obviously he looked a bit sick but you never would’ve known that he was about to die you know.
“I just came out of training and we have a group chat on Facebook and someone posted a link and I thought it was a prank. I thought ‘nah, I just saw him yesterday and he was fine’
“You know, I saw him yesterday, I hugged him yesterday and today I hear he’s dead…it’s unbelievable.”