Mark Hunt Blasts MMA Unions For Being All Talk
In the days leading up to his main event bout with Derrick “The Black Beast” Lewis at tonight’s (Sat., June 10, 2017) UFC Fight Night 110 from Auckland, New Zealand, Mark Hunt is as vocal as ever in his quest for a level playing field for fighters competing in the UFC.
While already engaged in a lawsuit against Brock Lesnar, Dana White, and the UFC surrounding his UFC 200 loss to the hulking former champion, who failed his drug test for performance-enhancing substances, Hunt recently criticized fellow fighters for not backing a union. Several attempts to organize, such as the apparently defunct PFA and the shockingly quiet MMAAA, have proven to be ineffective at best and nonexistent at worst.
This week, the heavyweight knockout specialist discussed his ongoing issues with the promotion, and revealed his thoughts on the importance of fighter representation.
“I’m never confident about anything, especially with law,” Hunt said on Monday during The MMA Hour. “All I’m trying to do is get a fair go at fighting. I’m sick of fighting these juicers, and like I said before, if they didn’t do enough to keep me happy, I’ll just do it myself. You guys put me in this position. I didn’t put myself in this position. I didn’t do anything wrong here. So you need to fix what you did wrong and change things, because like I said before, someone’s going to die.
“But I’m glad that the judge allowed it to go through to discovery, which is good.”
I don’t really care. If they want to fire me, go right ahead,” Hunt said. “It doesn’t do anything, I’ll just find a new contract. Like I said, if that’s the case, then why even want to be a part of the UFC? I’ve done nothing wrong here. All I’ve done is been a good company man, [fighting] all the time. You want me to fight? Yeah, when’s the date and where? Look, I’m just sick of fighting these juicers. They just keep giving me f*cking cheaters, so that’s all I’m trying to do is make it fair so that I can get a shot at fighting here for a title. And every time I start getting a run on, I get a f*cking juicehead because that’s all they have. So like I said, if they want to fire me now, go right ahead.”
When the subject of a fighters union was brought up, Hunt remained cynical. He has a large project on his hands in his court case, and overall, “The Super Samoan” doubts the resolve, ironically enough, of a bunch of fighters’ ability to truly stand up to their powerful employer:
“I’m just focused on fighting and on the court case,” Hunt said. “Like I said, with the union, I don’t know what’s going on. All the fighters need to band together for that, but there’s a lot of scared puppies out there.
“I hope a union starts or something happens, but it’s all big talk, big talk, but that’s all it is at the moment. Just talk. Right now, it’s nothing.”
Hunt is set to take on Lewis this Saturday in his native New Zealand. The former kickboxer sports a 13-12 record in MMA, most recently suffering a knockout loss to Alistair Overeem in March.
