Mark Hunt has developed a reputation for being as fearless with his opinions as he is in the Octagon, something he backed up on Tuesday when he blistered the UFC in a foul-mouthed tirade.
“You scummy c***s,” an irate Hunt said of his promoters on the MMA Hour.
“The problem is everyone these days is, ‘man, I want to get into the UFC.’ F*** the UFC. You’re s***. You motherf****ers don’t look after nobody.”
The Sydney-based fighter is infuriated, ranting and raving on social media since it was revealed that his UFC 200 opponent, herculean heavyweight Brock Lesnar, returned two positive drug tests in the lead-up to the multi-million dollar pay-per-view event.
Moreover, Hunt intimated in his interview with veteran journalist Ariel Helwani that the UFC may have even known about Lesnar’s performance-enhancing-drug use, and let him fight anyway.
“We’ll let this f***ing white piece of s*** f***ing stick needles in his ass and say, ‘oh, he’s going to take us all the way to the f***ing bank.’ Let’s give him f***ing millions of dollars and not worry about this motherf***er. You know what? F*** that and f*** your s*** company. Look at that for a contract. You can sue me on that, motherf***ers.”
This eye-opening interview has led many to believe the UFC will hand Hunt his walking papers, which would be a wild end to Hunt’s turbulent UFC career.
The truth is, the UFC never wanted Hunt in the first place. He was unwanted baggage, taken on when Zuffa LLC, the UFC’s parent company, purchased Japanese powerhouse Pride Fighting Championships.
For $70 million, the UFC received a tape library, a logo and a handful of contracts – one of which was Hunt’s.
In his book, Born To Fight, Hunt confessed that he was in a personal and professional downward spiral during this period, clouded by drugs and gambling habits that were crushing the fortune he attained in the Pride and K-1 rings during his salad days.
The pudgy fighter, who exceeded the UFC’s heavyweight limit by a few love handles at the time, was not welcome in the most prestigious mixed martial arts promotion but had a three-fight contract that he insisted upon fulfilling – even after the company offered to instead pay out the big sum of cash.
The UFC eventually caved, giving Hunt a fight in the Las Vegas-based promotion. The prelim bout lasted a little over a minute, with Hunt submitting to UFC debutant Sean McCorkle. It was his sixth-straight defeat – all via stoppage, and all in the first round – in a losing streak that dated back over four years.
UFC added insult to injury after that embarrassing loss, attempting to dissolve the big man’s contract by arguing that it was “too dangerous” for Hunt to fight in their organisation.
That’s right. Not only did UFC personnel believe Hunt was not a UFC-caliber heavyweight, they felt he was endangering himself by stepping into the Octagon.
UFC let up eventually, giving Hunt another fight against Chris Tuscherer, a bulky wrestler who was best known as one of Lesnar’s key sparring partners.
Hunt, who opened as a two-to-one underdog with the bookies, kept his UFC career alive by knocking Tuscherer out cold that chilly Sunday morning in Sydney. It was the first of four-straight for Hunt, who pocketed a $65,000 bonus for the highlight-reel KO.
Since that fight, the UFC big wigs have certainly come around to Hunt, using his as a headliner on five UFC cards between Australia, Japan and Mexico City.
“I love Mark Hunt,” White later admitted, speaking to the Herald Sun. “And I’ve told him that. When we were talking through his latest contract I said, ‘Mark I love ya and I want you to end your career with me. I want you to be here for the rest of your career’.”
“He’s definitely a special individual when it comes to doing a deal. But I love the f***ing guy and was willing to do whatever it took. I love his style, I love his toughness and I really love his f***ing walk-off knockouts. I love everything about him.”
Hunt has been a loyal soldier for the UFC, even agreeing to save a pay-per-view main event in Mexico City after then-UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez pulled out with an injury, leaving Brazilian jiu jitsu champion Fabricio Werdum without a dance partner.
The UFC had invested millions into Velasquez versus Werdum, all centered around a season of The Ultimate Fighter: Latin America that built up to the clash of rival coaches.
The injury-prone champ flushed all that money down the toilet when he got hurt, but an overweight and underprepared Hunt stepped up to the plate as a replacement, agreeing to fight Werdum in a foreign country, at 2250 metres above sea level, and with less than three weeks of preparation time.
It’s that no-nonsense, take-on-all-comers attitude that has endeared Hunt to the UFC boss, but, as far as he’s concerned, it earned him adoration, but not loyalty.
One of Hunt’s biggest gripes with the company in the aftermath of Lesnar’s doping scandal is that his phone didn’t ring once.
“No one’s bothered to call me about anything about those cheating motherf***ers,” the blunt fighter stated.
Since the anti-UFC tirade on Tuesday, ESPN reports that Jeff Novitzky from the U.S Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) has reached out to Hunt.
The ninth-ranked heavyweight contender has not released a statement since the phone call, but a UFC official told ESPN that it was “positive.”
The past few weeks have been emotionally trying for Hunt. First, he blurted out that he wants half of Lesnar’s $2.5 million purse or his release from the company. He later changed his mind, asking for all of Lesnar’s loot.
In a move that was sure to grab the UFC’s attention, Hunt continued his social media rampage, suggested that the sport desperately needed a fighters association, and felt he was the man to lead the charge.
“The way I see it, the Brock Lesnar doping thing is just another reason why we need a fighter’s association,” Hunt said on his website, MarkHunt.TV.
“These guys are just making up the rules as they go. First the Reebok thing, then Brock’s four-month testing exemption. Conor (McGregor) gets pulled off a card for not going to a press conference that me or Brock didn’t go to anyway. Work that out. There’s probably a heap of others.”
At 42 years of age, whether or not Hunt fights in the UFC again is a mystery. Either way, it seems the fighting Samoan is going to be a thorn in the UFC’s side for some time to come.
SM
Guest
Although I agree with a lot of what he said, I find the idea of a bloke who once fought in Pride of all places just now getting on his high horse about PED use a little amusing.
Alex Wood
Roar Guru
Another good read Justin, thanks. I'm a huge, huge Mark Hunt fan and to be honest he has a point. No doubt he is making his point entirely the wrong way but he DOES have a point. Brock Lesnar was signed to prop up a card that, while awesome in its own right, lacked the headline fight required to smash box office records. After Jones pulled out, whatever the top of the card said Lesnar-Hunt was the reason to watch for many fans. The UFC, who are putting on a show of "cleaning up their act", grant an exemption to a prime-candidate for suspicions of steroid use (size, shape and a previous conviction for steroid possession - not to mention affiliation with the WWE where drug abuse of all kinds is known to be rife) and then everyone is surprised when he pops? Give me a break. I'm not saying they knew he had actually tested positive but they simply must have suspected it was possible and, that being the case, surely they should have pulled Mark aside and said "lets make a lot of money and if something goes wrong, we'll look after you". At the very least they should have made it clear post-fight that he would be treated as having won the fight and assured him of another big card, with headline and PPV cut to help him progress toward the title shot.