Sydney’s UFC Fight Night 121 event has taken a big hit with local heavyweight Mark Hunt being removed from the card in the interest of fighter safety, following confessions in an article with Players Voice website.
Replacing the 43-year-old will be Fabricio Werdum, fresh off a submission win just last Sunday. Werdum will meet Marcin Tybura in the main event on November 19 with the event taking place at the Qudos Arena in Sydney.
The Daily Telegraph reported that UFC officials reviewed the article where Hunt spoke about the consequences he’s paid in his long fighting career. Hunt is currently also in a lawsuit with the UFC demanding compensation for damage he suffered against Lesnar who failed drug tests following their bout.
“Sometimes I don’t sleep well. You can hear me starting to stutter and slur my words. My memory is not that good anymore,” Hunt wrote for Players Voice.
“I’ll forget something I did yesterday but I can remember the shit I did years and years ago. That’s just the price I’ve paid – the price of being a fighter. But I’ve fought a lot of drug cheats and copped a lot of punishment from guys who were cheating and that’s not right.”
According to UFC officials, they were first made aware of the health-related statements while reading this article and as such felt they needed to make the necessary changes.
A UFC official told the Daily Telegraph, “The health-related statements made by Hunt in the article represent the first time UFC was made aware of these claims.
“Athlete health and safety is of the utmost importance to the organisation and it would never knowingly schedule an athlete complaining of health issues for a fight. The organisation will require that Hunt undergo further testing and evaluations prior to competing in any future UFC bout.”
Not surprisingly, Mark Hunt fired back on instagram below *WARNING: EXPLETIVE LANGUAGE*
Updated 11 October 2017 @ 10:42 AEST: Added further posts from Hunt
