Mark Hunt claims being forced to fight Alistair Overeem
MMA Update: UFC heavyweight titan Mark Hunt currently has two big UFC fights ahead of him. One with Alistair Overeem in Vegas at UFC 209 and another outside the Octagon with the UFC, Dana White and Brock Lesnar. On Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour, The Super Samoan stated that his heavyweight tilt in March wasn’t something he chose. Instead, it was foisted upon him.
“They put me in a position, like well what am I supposed to do?” said Hunt when speaking with host Ariel Helwani. “They forced this fight on me, pretty much.”
At present, Hunt is suing the UFC for racketeering, fraud, negligence and other claims in the fallout of his UFC 200 co-main event where he lost to Brock Lesnar, who in turn would lose to a drug test. The 42-year-old fighter’s never been shy about speaking up about drug cheats in MMA (“Cheaters gotta die. Die in a fire.”) and that made his scheduled fight with Overeem at UFC 209 all the more perplexing. Overeem has previously been popped for a failed drug test and this pairing seems strange considering the Hunt’s issues with the company. According to Hunt, there’s simply nowhere else he’s allowed to fight and a release from his contract hasn’t been granted.
“I couldn’t go anywhere else,” he explained. “That’s the position right now it is. If I couldn’t work anywhere else and I’m still trying to get my fair deal in this thing, what am I supposed to do? If they’re going to let me go, let me go. At least I can go work somewhere else. I’ve gotta look after my family and my commitments as well. And they can’t just sit me at the back of the bus without having any work. You can’t do that.”
This dynamic adds a strange twist to the upcoming Hunt/Overeem fight and gives Hunt a babyface aura as a clean fighter with his back against the wall due to sinister forces. Factor in Woodley/Thompson II and Khabib Nurmagomedov taking on Tony Ferguson and you have an intriguing main card with loads of time to promote. Also, Conor McGregor probably has some interest in how both of those fights pan out.
Category: Mixed Martial Arts
