Heavyweight contender Mark Hunt wasn’t exactly thrilled about the way his last bout was handled. Not only was he not happy that Brock Lesnar received an exception from the 4-month testing period for returning athletes, he was also upset that the WWE star failed a pre-fight drug test and was still able to compete at UFC 200.
It was recently announced that Brock also failed his in-competition test as well, which surely won’t sit well with Hunt either.
Mark recently stated that he either wants Brock’s purse for the test failure, or he gets a release from the promotion. He hasn’t received any response from the UFC, and he says this is just further proof that “they don’t care.”
According to the Super Samoan, these recent events just added to various reasons why he believes there should be a fighters association in the sport.
“The way I see it, the Brock Lesnar doping thing is just another reason why we need a fighter’s association,” he said in an interview for MarkHunt.tv. “These guys are just making up the rules as they go.”
“First the Reebok thing, then Brock’s 4 month testing exemption. Conor gets pulled off a card for not going to a press conference that me or Brock didn’t go to anyway. Work that out. There’s probably a heap of others.”
“Once they decided they were gunna cut Conor out, they didn’t care, they just needed a name to make 200 big,” he said. “Exemptions for Brock but not for Conor, I don’t know how you can just do that.”
“You just have to look at how Ariel gets his media pass taken away cause he broke a story about Brock, then he gets it back when other media stood up for him and called out the UFC.”
“These guys are just making sh*t it up as they go,” he said. “Yet fighters refuse to support other fighters when they f*ck us over.”
Related: What could an association do for UFC fighters? Labor law expert explains
All in all, Hunt says fighters should have their voices heard, especially when it comes to major decisions that affect all of them. He wants an association and isn’t “worried” or “scared” about any backlash he gets from the UFC.
“These guys have lined their pockets with our blood if you ask me,” he said. “I mean they deserve to get paid no doubt, they took the UFC from nothing into what it is today, but come on, most of the guys fighting, get paid nothing and have no benefits.”
“If you ask me there needs to be a system where they at least run things past the fighters before making these decisions and the fighters can look out for each other. We need an association where we can have our voices heard. We are massive reason why fans watch the sport and we risk our health to do it.”
“I’m not sure what its like in the states, but in Australia workers stick together to make sure their voice is heard. Lots of guys have talked about this, but someone needs to make this happen and I’m happy for it to be me.”
Hunt has also asked other fighters to get in touch with him about this. He says those worried about possibly falling out with the UFC can all remain anonymous until they “sort everything out” and make it all official.
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