Hunt: UFC took ‘love for fighting’

Mark Hunt has opened up on his final year in the UFC, revealing he fell out of love with fighting after feeling ‘‘cheated’’ by the mixed martial arts promotion.

Following eight years in the UFC, Hunt left the octagon with a whimper in Adelaide last month after suffering his third consecutive defeat of 2018.

A regular in the top 10 who fought for the interim heavyweight title in 2014, as well as being a fan favourite the world over, it was a sad way to bow out for the Kiwi combat sports legend and certainly not the way he envisaged his story ending.

Having stopped Derrick Lewis, at the time the hottest heavyweight in the division, the previous year there was a general feeling that

Hunt could make one last push for a title.

But the

‘Super

Samoan’ could not help but feel his public battle Mark Hunt with the

UFC over doping was held against him. And once he figured a title shot was never going to eventuate, he struggled to stay focused.

‘‘I still want to be the world champion in MMA. I know I’m 44 but still it’s one of my dreams,’’ Hunt said.

‘‘It’s been put off for a little because of this stupid company. The moment I realised I was never gonna get a title shot, that’s the time I started losing.

‘‘Since the Derrick Lewis fight, every fight after that has been not good at all. I actually went to see a sport [psychologist] about it and he hit it on the head straightaway when I talked to him: it’s hard to work for a company that’s cheated you and a lot of other fighters.’’

Hunt has been an outspoken critic of the UFC’s attitude towards doping to the point where it overshadowed the last few years of his career.

Hunt reiterated that he still wants to fight five more times and says he is fielding offers from several promotions.

‘‘I want to see if it’s time to retire or if working for the UFC just made me go sour,’’ he said. ‘‘At the end of the day, it’s eitheror. I still feel like I’m a lot better than a lot of those guys.’’