Mark Hunt has always been known for his honesty. He has an honest way of fighting and an honest way of expressing himself away from the cage.
This honesty, however, can sometimes land him in trouble, as was apparent again yesterday (October 10) when ‘The Super Samoan’ was dramatically pulled from a proposed fight against Marcin Tybura on November 19 as a result of a first-person piece he contributed to the Players Voice in September.
In the piece, Hunt, a 43-year-old heavyweight who recently stopped Derrick Lewis in four rounds, admitted to feeling the impact of a 25-year professional fighting career, which was enough for the UFC to to take what they described as “precautionary steps” and remove him from their upcoming Sydney fight card.
“My body is f***ed but my mind is still here,” Hunt wrote in the article. “I’ve still got my senses about me and I know what’s right and wrong, which is the main thing.
“Sometimes I don’t sleep well. You can hear me starting to stutter and slur my words. My memory is not that good anymore.
“I’ll forget something I did yesterday but I can remember the s**t I did years and years ago. That’s just the price I’ve paid — the price of being a fighter.
“But I’ve fought a lot of drug cheats and copped a lot of punishment from guys who were cheating and that’s not right.”
The UFC didn’t like that. They didn’t like the revelation that one of their fighters struggles to remember what he did yesterday, nor the suggestion “drug cheats” were to be held partly accountable.
“Following a recent first-person article published by heavyweight Mark Hunt, the UFC has taken the precautionary steps of removing Hunt from a previously announced bout in Sydney, Australia,” a UFC official said.
“The health-related statements made by Hunt in the article represent the first time UFC was made aware of these claims. Athlete health and safety is of the utmost importance to the organization and it would never knowingly schedule an athlete complaining of health issues for a fight. The organization will require that Hunt undergo further testing and evaluations prior to competing in any future UFC bout.”
Since the article was published, Hunt has found his spot at UFC Fight Night 121 taken by Fabricio Werdum, fresh from a quick-fire win against Walt Harris last weekend, and is now left without a fight and with an axe to grind.
Reacting the only way he knows how, Mark Hunt took a selfie while driving his car and then got mad. Really mad.
Later, he calmed down a bit.
Never change, Mark Hunt.
