UPDATED – Tweets of the day: Mark Hunt denied boarding on US-bound flights due to visa issues, 2002 arrest

Mark Hunt has had a lot of things go right for him over the past couple of years. A four-fight winning streak has him…

By: Tim Burke | 10 years ago
UPDATED – Tweets of the day: Mark Hunt denied boarding on US-bound flights due to visa issues, 2002 arrest
Bloody Elbow 2.0 | Anton Tabuena

Mark Hunt has had a lot of things go right for him over the past couple of years. A four-fight winning streak has him in what amounts to a number one contender bout with Junior dos Santos at UFC 160 on May 25th. But Hunt’s luck hasn’t been so good over the past few days – he has been unable to fly to the US to start preparing for the bout, being denied entry onto two different flights for two very different reasons and ending up stuck in New Zealand. Hunt has been keeping a running commentary of his issues on twitter, and the reason he was denied entry on the first flight was apparently because he didn’t have a visa:


He did provide some foreshadowing in a response to a tweet though, mentioning an arrest:


Things appeared to be cleared up when he got his old passport and visa sent over to him:


Good to go, right? Fast forward three days, and things apparently got a lot worse:


Obviously he was denied entry due to the arrest he mentioned before. There are still 16 days until the event, but stuff like this isn’t easy to sort out sometimes. I doubt that the bout is in jeopardy, but hopefully he can get it cleared up and start his preparation for Dos Santos as quickly as possible.

UPDATE: Hunt says the arrest was in the US in 2002 –

He also said that the UFC is “on it”, and he should be flying out tonight. That’s good to hear.

UPDATE 2 – Hunt explained the 2002 arrest in detail to MMA Fighting:

“Just a stupid incident which happened in 2002,” he told MMAFighting.com. “It wasn’t even my fault, but as usual, I get canned for it. I should be fine by today. UFC is on it.”

“A friend of mine punched another friend outside a club. Another guy said to me that they needed help. I went out to see what had happened. I see that these two losers were pissed [drunk]. I try to go back in the club and an undercover cop said I wasn’t allowed. I said, Can I just go back in to get my girl? He says, no. I ask him again, he says, I’ll tell you one more time you’re under arrest. Guess what? I ask again, he flicks his baton; I get upset.

“So, he has his baton in his left hand, and I walk up to him. He maces me with his right hand, and they jump me. I wasn’t even drunk. I spent New Year’s in jail for public intoxication, and I wasn’t even drunk.”

Interestingly enough, he also said that the arrest is why he couldn’t fight Butterbean at Pride 32 back in 2006. It was reported that he had an injury at the time.

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