Mark Hunt Still Feels He Is At His Best, Wants To Fight In Japan
To say that the departure of Mark Hunt from the UFC was messy is quite the massive understatement. Nevertheless, with that situation behind him, he has his eyes set on what is next.
Hunt is a true veteran of MMA, and combat sports generally. He went from being on a losing streak in Pride, with the UFC offering to buy him out of his contract rather than let him fight, to earning an interim title shot in the heavyweight division. That all led to his being let go from the company, after he tried to sue the UFC, following several opponents failing drug tests after fighting him, particularly when it comes to his UFC 200 opponent Brock Lesnar.
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After a long and exhausting battle, Hunt has been officially released from the company. Now that this is the case, he is looking for a new place to fight. Speaking recently in an interview, he explained that wherever he ends up, he still feels he is at his best, and is competitive with the best in the world.
“I’ll make some money along the way and not have to worry about fighting against the company or the people you work for, just fighting in general,” Hunt said. “What I used to love doing. I’m still banging to be honest, I still feel I’m one of the best fighters out there, even at 46 years of age. I feel I have way more to offer, but I’m glad that I don’t have to give it all to the UFC. I can give it somewhere else.”
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As for where he wants to fight next, the 46 year old Pride veteran Mark Hunt would like to make a return to Japan, to compete again.
“My favourite thing to do was compete at the top end against the very best,” Hunt explained. “Even though a lot of them were cheating I felt at a good place because I was competing with the best fighters in the world and they were gassing themselves and I was still competing. Even though it wasn’t a fair fight I still was in there fighting.
“I love Japan. Japan’s one of my favourite countries to compete in. I always considered myself a Japanese born in a different place. I’ve competed ten years in Japan and hopefully I can get back there one day.”
As for whether or not Mark Hunt is still at the top of the sports that seems unlikely. Regardless it will be exciting to see him back in action, maybe with an organization like ONE. Although Japanese MMA has always been a little lax on their drug testing policies, so who knows?
