One of the best hitters in the Draft is also a Samoan fire knife dancer

PHOENIX -- Search the internet for good hand-eye coordination drills for hitting and you'll find all kinds of suggestions, from hitting stones with a broomstick to juggling. One suggestion that won't be made is "fire-knifing."

Unless you're UCLA first baseman Mulivai Levu, of course.

"I give all the credit for my hand-eye coordination to fire-knifing," Levu said in a sit-down interview at the MLB Draft Combine. "It's helped me a lot."

For Levu, MLB's No. 62 Draft prospect, it's a lot more than a mechanism to hit fastballs better. It's a connection to his culture and his family. Levu loves honoring his Polynesian and Samoan heritage as much as he loves hitting. The youngest of five children, he started performing with his uncle's Polynesian entertainment troupe back when he was nine. Known as "Siva Afi" (in Samoan, siva means dance and afi means fire), performers typically use machete-like blades wrapped in ignited cloth, spun and tossed at very high speeds.

It's not just performance art. The ritual dates back centuries and emanates from a warrior's skill, a sign of strength, agility and bravery, starting back then with a weapon known as nifo oti ("tooth of death"). Like in many cultures, Samoans use dance to honor their past and tell stories. In the 20th century, performers started using a version of the weapon in ceremonial dances and the idea of adding fire is generally believed to have occurred in the 1940s. Fire knife dancing has been taking off ever since.

"I take a lot of pride in representing my culture, especially my family," Levu said. "You don't really see a lot of Polynesians or Samoans in the league. To be able to be here and represent them means a lot to me."

Levu's main weapon has been his bat -- for the record, he thinks setting a bat on fire and twirling it would be a bad idea -- over three years at UCLA. He leaves the Bruins with a career .940 OPS and has improved each of his three years, capping it off with a .340/.441/.662 junior season that included 18 homers, 63 RBIs and nearly as many walks (30) as strikeouts (32). All of that has him positioned to hear his name called in the top three rounds of the Draft on July 11 and has led to none other than potential No. 1 pick, and UCLA teammate, Roch Cholowsky to proclaim that Levu is the best hitter in the country to anyone who'll listen.

"It makes me feel good that he talks highly of me," Levu said. "I do the same for him."

Levu's premium hand-eye coordination has led to very little swing-and-miss, with a 17 percent miss rate this year bringing down that percentage to 19 percent for his college career. The flip side of that coin is that he's so adept at putting bat to ball that he is prone to chase. He did up his walk rate in 2026, but for context, there are just 13 qualified hitters in the big leagues who have a chase rate north of 30 percent and a miss rate under 20 percent this season. Only three of those hitters have an OPS over .800 for the season.

"I've realized that in pro ball, the pitching will be more difficult, so limiting my zone is going to be a big thing I'm going to try to work on," Levu said. "I can get away with it sometimes here and there; if a pitch is barely out of the zone, I can put a barrel on it. But I know long-term, I'm going to try to limit it, like how I did this year."

That should help him ascend to the big leaguers, where he has the chance to be a very dangerous hitter. He hopes that can be a platform for him to be a role model for other Samoans, much like his cousin Blake Sabol, currently in Triple-A with the Rays, has been for him.

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"I've seen a couple of Samoan kids follow me on Instagram," Levu said. "I check their accounts and it's cool to see they're tapped into baseball, they play the same position. Even my extended family, I hear that, my mom said they talk about me all the time. It's cool to be somewhat of an inspiration to them."

Will he be able to do so by taking the stage with fire in his hands? His future Major League employer might have some thoughts, but Levu is hoping he can continue that family tradition in the future.

"We'll see if I can get back into it," Levu said. "It's been a pretty busy few years. Maybe I can get a show in with my cousins and my uncle."