Former
Ultimate Fighting Championship heavyweight interim title
challenger Mark Hunt has
plenty of axes left to grind.
Speaking with betting service and esports platform Thunderpick on Thursday, Hunt did not
hold back from what he had to say about the UFC, a few of its
favored fighters, the tail end of his fighting career and how
esports has given him some form of peace in his life. Most notable
were his comments on current UFC heavyweight beltholder Jon Jones,
whom he did not hold back criticizing as a “cheat.”
Advertisement
“Jon Jones is the greatest cheat of all time, that’s all he is and
that’s how got to the top end,” Hunt said. “That’s how he got to
hang out with guys like me, he’s a cheating little rat. That’s all
he’ll ever be. You can’t be the greatest fighter in the world when
you’re sticking needles in your ass and hiding under the Octagon
from USADA [The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency]. How are you supposed to
be the greatest fighter?”
He continued, “UFC have put these cheaters and these shortcut
takers in the Hall of Fame. The way I see it, any guy that’s been
caught doping or cheating—there goes everything you’ve earned. Your
world titles mean nothing, you’ve been caught as a shortcut taker,
that’s all you are.”
Hunt famously sued the organization after departing it, on the
grounds that he did not consent to face fighters taking
performance-enhancing substances. At UFC 200, Hunt battled Brock
Lesnar, whom the promotion sought an exemption for as it
pertained to testing prior to competition. Lesnar ultimately won
the match, but failed his post-fight test for clomiphene, a
medication typically prescribed to women struggling with
infertility. That lawsuit wore Hunt down across the board, but it
still persists today.
“Equality, that’s the only thing I’ve been about from the start. I
said, ‘Dana it’s not fair, can we make this fair, these guys are
cheating,” Hunt remarked. “’It’s not up to me Mark, it’s up to
USADA,’ were his precise words. I only asked for an even playing
field, now it’s come to this nearly a decade later. I’m separated
now [from the UFC] and it’s hard because the toll and the damage is
huge. My mental health is struggling, my finances are struggling,
it’s been really, really hard. It’s cost me everything.”
Post-UFC competition has not entirely gone Hunt’s way, as he has
taken to the boxing ring twice in hopes of picking up additional
paychecks. He came up short after a six-rounder to Paul Gallen in
2020, but in 2022, he knocked out Sonny Bill Williams for his first
professional victory. According to Hunt, things got shady in a
hurry with those two matches. In July, those two athletes will face
off against one another.
“I’d normally back Sonny Bill to win, but those guys ripped me off.
I had a deal with Sonny Bill’s agent, Khoder Nasser. He shook my
hand, but then he came to me after his boy got knocked out and said
[my purse] is $140,000. I was promised $1 million for the Sonny
Bill [fight], that’s why I am backing Gallen on this because even
though I ran his bell, I’m going to go with Gallen because I don’t
like being ripped off.”
Hunt repeated a scandalous reveal that he has suggested for at
least a year and a half, that Gallen’s team asked him to take a
fall when Hunt returned to the boxing ring. “Even in that fight,
[Gallen’s team] offered me $3 million to take a dive in the first
round. I said ‘no’ and even though I lost the fight I still rung
his bell.”
It is currently unclear the contracts that bind Hunt, as he
completed his UFC deal in 2018 and did not re-sign. While he fought
in boxing, those bouts do not appear to be part of an exclusive,
long-term deal. Despite this, Hunt suggests that he will not be
able to fight until his current lawsuit against the UFC is in the
books. Of all the organizations in the combat sports world, the
51-year-old looks to the Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship as one
he would like test before he hangs up his gloves entirely.
“I’d love to fight in that BKFC arena in Rome, an amazing walkout,
feeling the history of all those deaths. But I have to wait for my
lawsuit to be over,” Hunt professed. “Fighting for the world title
would be something I’ve always wanted, to be a modern-day
gladiator. That doesn’t matter whether I’m in the ring, Octagon, or
now the law courts. But to be in a place of history like Italy,
where all these [people] died for their freedom, now that would be
special.”
At his age, the Pride Fighting Championships veteran knows that
his income streams in combat sports are going to be limited. Like
few athletes in One Championship including Demetrious
Johnson, Hunt has turned part of his focus to digital sports.
He even likens gaming tournaments to fighting or like any other
job.
“You’ll probably see me owning my own team at the Counter-Strike
tournaments, I think Shaq’s got his own team. I would love to
challenge Shaq’s team. Esports is really big and e-sporters train
like athletes. They hire a house and sit there 18 hours a day
gaming together, like an actual fight camp, ready to battle it out
for $1 million. Some gamers make more money than sportsmen and
women, I’d say.”
The ex-kickboxer suggests that top gamers get paid better than most
fighters, and he is taking this new section of his career quite
seriously.
“Fighting and gaming is the game, you go into camp, you learn the
map as a Counter-strike team, it’s like a job. You learn timings,
the things you do as a team on every single map you challenge on,
so when you execute the plan, it’s like clockwork. So, when I go to
fight camp, I go to training every day, I do my wrestling, I finish
up with sparring, and then I go to fight, just like an esports
team,” the longtime fighter compared.
Above all, esports have given Hunt an outlet to vent and get all of
his anger, rage and violence out without harming another soul.
“Esports helped me when I was fighting because I could be the devil
online, take all the frustration mentally up there, and then go
back to training. My alter-ego is fierce; I could be who I wanted
to be online, and then I can get off and be okay. Violence can
happen when I’m gaming, my alter-ego is fulfilled, my cup is full,
and I can just leave it,” the brick-fisted Hunt concluded.