On a recent trip to Scotland, Mark “The Super Samoan” Hunt sat down to talk with MMA UK James Hamilton, for an exclusive interview.
In Scotland on a family vacation, he checked out a few of the local gyms, and went to “chill out”.
To say the least, Hunt did not pull any punches, regarding his relationship with the UFC, who’s the gross treatment of Mark Hunt, has led him to “fall out of love with the sport”.
Here are a few things we can take away from Mark “The Super Samoan” Hunt interview.
As per Hunt, there would have been no extending the UFC contract “not even on my end”.
Mark Hunt is a purist of the sport, and as such his reasoning is no surprise, and in his eyes, there was no love-hate, just love lost.
“What they’ve done is taken my love for fighting away, because how they promote steroids and cheaters. How they’ve done it, they pushed me out of the way, to be honest, and that’s what’s taken my love for fighting away”.
Hunt continued to explain why the UFC, and their practices, or lack thereof, pushed him away from the organisation as a whole.
In true Mark Hunt fashion, he did not hold back, especially on the ultimate cheaters in the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
“Pure example, look at the last situation, with Jon Jones and Gustafsson, they move the whole freaking show for one cheating guy. All the fans missed out”.
Clearly upset by the whole situation, Hunt goes off about Jon Jones and his fight career. “He’s a shortcut taker, that’s all he is, you’re a bum, Jon Jones, that’s all you’ll ever be”.
Hunts major issues, with the biggest organisation, allowing fighters to cheat their way to the top, and it’s happening more. He mentions Brock Lesnar who is another, or the largest shortcut taker, ever.
“He never beat anybody, he’s just a bum, I mean the guys a cheater just like Brock Lesnar, like all the other shortcut takers”.
A beautiful transition from James Hamilton steered the conversation to what any real enthusiast wants to know.
Will Mark Hunt fight again?
“I’m still having offers, I’ve got a few offers already, I’m just enjoying my time out. I wanna fight five more times, I want to be the world champion in MMA, I know I’m 44, but it’s still one of my dreams.”
“It’s been put off a little because of this stupid company (UFC), that’s just what it comes down too. The moment I realised I was never gonna get a title shot, that’s the time I started losing”.
Believe it or not, Hunt went to see a sports psych about the negative effect from his treatment from the UFC. “He really hit it on the head straight away when I talked to him”.
Hunt continued on what he was told. “It’s hard to work for a company, that’s cheated you, that you feel has cheated you. That’s cheating you and a lot of other fighters.”
Hunt chuckled and continued. “But the problem is these fighters are too scared to say anything about it”.
Hamilton remarked on how vocal Mark Hunt is about this stuff, and that he’s probably the most vocal.
Not surprising Hunt says we all have a responsibility to speak up. “I don’t know why that’s the case, it should be everybody.
Not just the fighters, it should be the fans, everybody that’s a part of this sport. It’s the fans that make this sport what it is, not the stupid company, all they do is what companies do, make money”.
Wrapping up an amazing interview with Mark Hunt, James Hamilton asked again, “What all fans want to know, will you be back fighting, whether it be a Bellator, ONE FC, will you be back in the cage in 2019?”
“Hopefully yeah, I wanna fight five more times, I wanna see if it’s time to retire, or if it’s because I was working for UFC, and made me go sour. If that’s what is, at the end of the day, it’s either or, I still feel like I’m better than a lot of those guys”.
We will definitely get to see Mark Hunt fight again, where and when is up in the air, but Mark “The Super Samoan” Hunt still has more fight left in him.
Watch the full interview with Mark Hunt below