After an eight-year run that had its ups and downs, both in and out of the cage, Mark Hunt appears to have fought his last UFC fight. After a lackluster decision loss to Justin Willis in front of his home country fans in Adelaide, Australia Saturday, Hunt was given an opportunity on the mic post-fight.
“On behalf of myself and my family, thank you UFC,” Hunt said to the crowd in Adelaide. ” Thank you for your support, I’ll see you somewhere else.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bq4RjCeBLAN/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=embed_video_watch_again
“Somewhere else” would indicate that Hunt has plans to continue fighting, just not for UFC. Hunt’s tenure with UFC has been tumultuous from the beginning, but has been especially tense in the last two years. Hunt filed a lawsuit against the promotion following his loss to Brock Lesnar at UFC 200. Lesnar failed a drug test and the win was overturned to a no-contest, but Hunt felt he was treated unfairly and that UFC had reason to believe Lesnar was fighting dirty. Even with the lawsuit, Hunt fought out his contract, and was still positioned well by UFC. UFC offered a kind sendoff to Hunt over social media Saturday night with the caption “Legend. Thank you for everything.”
Hunt leaves UFC with a career MMA record of 13-14-1 with 1 no contest making him possibly the most successful fighter to have a losing record. Some notable UFC moments for Hunt include a five-round classic with “Bigfoot” Silva in 2013 and walk off knockouts of Stefan Struve and Roy Nelson.
NEXT: BELLATOR 211 REPORT, SAKARA VS KAUPPINEN
Hunt may be a perfect fit for RIZIN who run out of Japan where Hunt fought in his early career for PRIDE, K-1, and Dream. Hunt hasn’t made any other comments regarding his fighting future, but it wouldn’t shock us to see him in Japan sooner or later.
Leave a Reply