http://411mania.com/mma/why-mark-hunt-is-wrong/ - Good article by Jeffery Harris. Shortened version Below
For starters, at the end of the day, if Brock Lesnar cheated, that fault is not with the UFC. Sorry, but it’s not. The UFC is a fight promoter. Brock Lesnar was looking for an MMA fight. Mark Hunt was offered that fight, and he agreed to take it. It is not the UFC’s fault when fighters try to cheat and try to get a leg up on the competition. Even before the fight, Mark Hunt was outspoken about his suspicions and accusations for Lesnar, but he still took the fight because he wanted a big fight and a big payday. Now does that make it acceptable for Lesnar to cheat? No it doesn’t. But the UFC is not at fault because Lesnar allegedly is on the juice. Lesnar had never failed a drug test in his entire career. Lesnar was thoroughly tested before the fight. Now does it suck that banned substances weren’t discovered before the fight? Yes, but that’s the also the nature of the business. It’s not the first time fighters have failed drug tests and the results were not revealed until after the fight, and it won’t be the last either. As long as athletes are able to compete, they will try to find ways to cheat and game the system. Does Lesnar potentially getting caught just show how effective the USADA testing is at this point?
The fault here is not with the UFC and USADA. The fault is with fighters who are cheating. They are the ones to blame. That’s where Hunt should be directing his anger. Another silly thing Mark Hunt has done is angle for Brock Lesnar’s entire $2.5 million fight purse. Sorry Hunt, that’s not how the fight game works. There is no law or rule that says even if a fighter cheats, he has to turn over half or over his entire fight purse to you. The UFC doesn’t have to enforce that rule either. Now if Mark Hunt wants to pursue legal options for financial compensation here, more power to him. Also, I’m not against Hunt wanting to try and unionize fighters either, though I’m not sure how far he will get. Personally, I think the UFC and its new owners should probably figure out a way to classify their rosters as actual employees instead of independent contracts as that could potentially fix some of potential problems in the future. Either way, UFC has no obligation to reward Hunt because Lesnar allegedly cheated. In addition, if Lesnar is found guilty of cheating, he is going to get penalized and punished by USADA and the Nevada State Athletic Commission.
Mark Hunt said the following: “Before the fight I was assuming he was cheating. Look at him. There’s no way that guy makes 265 pounds. That guy is a gimp, he’s sticking needles in his ass like the rest of these cheaters. And the thing about that is, he’s sitting here saying ‘this is a fair place.’ Well, it’s not fair. These guys are cheating and they should be in court for it. (They should) lose all of their money if they’re cheating, because if I die in there, who’s going to look after my family. That’s corrupt sh*t, man. These motherf*ckers should be penalized hard. Dirty, scummy, cheating scum. That’s how that monkey won his world title. He didn’t do it by doing it clean. He did it by cheating, just like the rest of these cheaters.”
To be perfectly honest, for Hunt to make these claims sounds a little hypocritical. If it bothers him that much, he got out of the fight game a long time ago. Last time I checked, Hunt refused when the UFC offered to buy out his Pride FC contract. Hunt wanted to fight in the UFC, and the UFC gave him that opportunity. None of this bothered Mark Hunt when he fought in Pride FC which had no drug testing or regulatory body in place. Guess what Mark Hunt? Yes, you have fought cheaters in the UFC. And they are being tested and caught. As opposed to his days of fighting Wanderlei Silva, Josh Barnett, and Mirko Cro Cop in the Pride FC era, when they weren’t being tested and caught. Now fighters are getting tested, and they are getting caught unlike what was happening 5-10 years ago. And that still didn’t keep you from fighting or wanting to take fights. If this bothers Mark Hunt that much, he’s really in the wrong business and should’ve gotten out a long time ago.
