9 Things You Need To Know About Mark Hunt's Lawsuit Against Brock Lesnar & UFC
1. Did The UFC Really Bend The Rules For Lesnar?
The biggest question surrounding this lawsuit is probably the easiest one to answer: did the UFC bend the rules for Brock Lesnar at UFC 200. In a word: no.
Look, the UFC has done a lot of shady stuff over the years. It has serious fighter pay concerns. It drove the competition out of business. Its president has at times badmouthed his own employees and even attacked one of the UFC's biggest stars, Georges St. Pierre, without merit.
Yet in the Lesnar case, the UFC followed the rules as they were written.
An Athlete who gives notice of retirement to UFC, or has otherwise ceased to have a contractual relationship with UFC, may not resume competing in UFC Bouts until he/she has given UFC written notice of his/her intent to resume competing and has made him/herself available for Testing for a period of four months before returning to competition. UFC may grant an exemption to the four-month written notice rule in exceptional circumstances or where the strict application of that rule would be manifestly unfair to an Athlete
The UFC's reason for letting Lesnar skip out on a few months of drug testing was sound. He had retired years before USADA was working with the UFC, so in essence, he could be treated like a brand new fighter. And did it matter? After five clean drug tests, he still failed. The system worked. Is it a perfect system? No. Is Hunt justified in being upset over the matter? Absolutely.
However, his efforts to prove a conspiracy will likely fall flat, as the evidence simply isn't there. If the UFC wanted to turn a blind eye to performance enhancing drugs, they wouldn't have brought in USADA in the first place. After all, no other MMA promotion in the world has taken that extra step: not Bellator, not the WSOF, not ONE Championship.
Hunt's best hope for all of this is a quick settlement with Lesnar. Otherwise, he may be spending more time in the court room than the octagon in coming years. At 42, however, Hunt may understand that he has little time left in the sport anyway.