Hunt lawsuit still standing
Complaint against UFC survives motion to dismiss
Mark Hunt had a welcome boost in the lead-up to this weekend's UFC fight fest in Auckland. The Kiwi-born fighter got good news regarding his lawsuit against the UFC, its high profile boss Dana White and American Brock Lesnar — with the suit reportedly surviving a motion to dismiss by the UFC.
According to MMAFighting.com Hunt's lawyers filed an amended complaint in a US District Court, alleging the UFC, White and Lesnar committed racketeering, fraud, battery and civil conspiracy with regards to Lesnar's failed drug test at UFC 200 a year ago after he beat the Australiabased Kiwi heavyweight.
The website obtained a copy of the amended complaint. It claims the UFC, White and Lesnar knew Lesnar was using performance-enhancing drugs ahead of the bout and cleared the way for Lesnar, a wrestling superstar, to beat American antidoping rules and fight.
Hunt has complained he was damaged both financially and physically by what his lawyers described as a “criminal conspiracy”.
“Lesnar, White, and UFC, acted in concert . . . to defraud Hunt and commit a battery against Hunt by a scheme to knowingly pit Hunt, a clean fighter, against Lesnar, a doping fighter, to the wrongful benefit of Defendants and to the detriment of Hunt,” the complaint reads.
Lesnar tested positive for the banned substance clomiphene in a pre-fight, out-of-competition test and was then popped for the same substance on fight night.
The pre-fight test result did not come back before the fight. Lesnar was able to fight and defeated Hunt by unanimous decision. Lesnar was later suspended by both the US AntiDoping Association (USADA) and the Nevada Athletic Commission (NAC) and fined $US250,000 ($NZ350,000) by the NAC. The victory was overturned by the NAC to a no contest.
MMAFighting.com reported Hunt's Mark Hunt, left, and fellow Kiwi fighter Dan Hooker are among the drawcards for UFC Fight Night at Vector Arena on Saturday night. complaint also features an alleged back-and-forth text with White where the big Kiwi expresses concern about Lesnar being on performanceenhancing drugs.
Hunt asked White on June 8, just two days after the fight was officially announced by the UFC, what would happen if Lesnar is “positive for cheating”. White texted back that “USADA is testing the shit outta him”.
The UFC had previously waived a rule for Lesnar that stated returning fighters must be in the USADA testing program for four months before competing again. MMAFighting.com said Lesnar was tested about one month out from UFC 200. Lesnar did pass multiple USADA tests in June before a June 28 sample — taken 11 days prior to the July 9 fight — came back positive after UFC 200.
Hunt asked White about that waiver and White replied in a text that the UFC “made a move to get a deal done” with Vince McMahon of WWE to get Lesnar a fight. Lesnar was, and is, under exclusive contract to WWE, the pro-wrestling promotion.
“We went after Brock,” White texted to Hunt. “He has no problem doing whatever tests USADA wants.”
In the amended complaint, Hunt's lawyers claim the UFC, White and Lesnar were intentionally pushing back the signing of the bout agreement and announcement until as late as possible so Lesnar could avoid the USADA until that time.
Prior to the high profile fight, Hunt said he knew Lesnar was “juicing” but didn't care and would knock him out anyway. MMAFighting.com said the UFC's lawyers highlighted that in their initial motion to dismiss.
In his complaint, Hunt claims he has lost endorsement opportunities due to the loss to Lesnar.
“Had Hunt known of White, UFC and Lesnar's doping scheme, Hunt would have declined the fight, negotiated a far more lucrative agreement contemplating a clean fighter being subjected to hand-to-hand combat with a doping fighter, or otherwise protected his interests,” the complaint reads.
Hunt fights American Derrick Lewis, known as “The Black Beast” at Auckland's Vector Area on Saturday. at the hands of Mayweather Jr, is coming off a lopsided win over Julio Cesar Chavez Jr last month in Las Vegas.
The fight will be televised on payper-view from the 20,000-seat facility that is also the home of the UFC.
“Everybody wants to go to Vegas, have a great time and watch a great fight,” Oscar De La Hoya, who promotes Alvarez, said.
Golovkin, popularly known in boxing as Triple G, has campaigned for a fight against Alvarez for much of the past two years. The fight was announced last month after Alvarez beat Chavez in a pay-per-view fight at T-Mobile Arena.
“We had to wait for a long time,” Loeffler said. “It was frustrating having a champion willing to fight anybody who still found it virtually impossible to get top names in the ring with him.”
Golovkin is coming off a hardfought decision win over Daniel Jacobs in March at Madison Square Garden that was the first time in nine years he was forced to go the distance in a bout.
The speculation in boxing was that his performance against Jacobs may have convinced Alvarez that it was worth the risk to face such a big puncher.
De La Hoya, who announced the fight during an appearance on ESPN, said the fight between two boxers who are all action and big punchers will help fans forget the 2015 bout between Mayweather and Pacquiao that didn’t live up to expectations.
“I made Triple G versus Canelo in order to bring back those fans and give fight fans a real fight,” De La Hoya said.
“This is a real fight.”