UFC heavyweight Mark Hunt has been very vocal when it comes to his views on those who fail drug tests.
The ‘Super Samoan’ lost to Brock Lesnar at UFC 200, only for the result to be ruled a No Contest when the former heavyweight champion tested positive for banned substance clomiphene.
Hunt spoke out against Lesnar’s special treatment before the fight, which was initially given to the American by unanimous decision before the drug test results were made public.
The New Zealander called for the WWE superstar to surrender a portion of his purse for the fight – just as those who fail to make weight are required to do – before hitting out at drug cheats during a foul-mouthed MMA Hour appearance last year.
While Lesnar has a few more months to wait until he is technically allowed to return to the Octagon, Hunt is expected to make his return against Alistair Overeem at UFC 209, despite filing a lawsuit related to the Lesnar controversy.
Hunt lost to the Dutchman in their one previous meeting in 2008 – before the pair entered the UFC – and told The MMA Hour that the fight was forced on him.
Given that Overeem has previously failed a drug test of his own, back in 2012, Hunt was unsurprisingly keen to take precautions to avoid a repeat of the Lesnar situation.
He appeared on The MMA Hour at the same time as his lawyer, Christina Denning, and explained his eagerness to secure guarantees that he would receive all of his future opponents’ purses, were they to fail a drugs test, and why he accepted the Overeem fight despite not receiving such reassurances.
“They put me in a position where…what am I supposed to do? They forced the fight on me, pretty much,” Hunt said.
“I reached out to Alistair, I reached out to the UFC about putting [in] a clause to help with this [but] there was no reply, so what am I supposed to do.
“Then they say ‘you better take this fight or else’. Well, or else what?”
Denning confirmed that attempts had been made to add a provision to deter doping.
“Lines of communication were open throughout this process, including during the times when Mark was offered the other fight,” she explained.
“With respect to the Overeem fight, it’s something that the UFC put in writing that if he wasn’t going to take this fight, he would be considered to be in breach of his agreement.
“At this point we had already made efforts to get a provision in the contract, which I think needs to be there, and we’d already tried to come up with some sort of resolution for UFC 200 but unfortunately we weren’t able to do so and he took the fight.”
