mma

Mark Hunt Is Fighting Alistair Overeem Because He Has To

March 2, 2017 | Posted by Jeremy Thomas
Mark Hunt

Mark Hunt spoke with MMAjunkie about his fight with Alistair Overeem at UFC 209. Highlights are below:

On taking the fight against Overeem: “I was forced to be here. I was told, ‘If you don’t take this fight it’s against your contract.’ Why should my family suffer and miss out on my hard work? They deserve to have the better things in life because I’ve gotten beaten up to get here, so why should they miss out? I haven’t done nothing wrong here, so why should I be the outsider here? The other guy is the guy that cheated. All these other guys that cheat should be put on a pedestal like, ‘That guy’s a cheat. He shouldn’t be here.’”

On his lawsuit against Dana White and the UFC: “I didn’t want to be in this position. They gave me no choice. What am I supposed to do? Keep coming to work and fighting steroid cheaters. How would you feel going to work losing to guys? And it is losing. Because if you do lose, you lose. You don’t get no benefit from it. This is supposed to be the best fighters in the world, not the best cheaters in the world or the best guys that can hide it with doctors. The reason I’ve done this is because it’s been a pattern of things that happened.”

On the chance of relationship with the UFC: “They don’t talk to me anymore. It’s just lawyer talk now. All I ask for is an even playing field. Put in a clause that if he gets caught doping, after he gets processed by USADA or whatever, all his money should go to the guy who didn’t cheat. It pays to cheat right now. It shouldn’t be like that.”

On his fight with Overeem: “I’ve never lost a rematch. I’m looking forward to hurting him. It just angers me that I still have to compete with these guys that are known for using steroids.”