UFC, Pride FC Veteran Paints Jon Jones as ‘Greatest Cheat of All Time’

Former Ultimate Fighting Championship heavyweight interim title challenger Mark Hunt has plenty of axes left to grind.

Speaking with betting service and esports platform Thunderpick on Thursday, Hunt did not hold back from what he had to say about the UFC, a few of its favored fighters, the tail end of his fighting career and how esports has given him some form of peace in his life. Most notable were his comments on current UFC heavyweight beltholder Jon Jones, whom he did not hold back criticizing as a “cheat.”

“Jon Jones is the greatest cheat of all time, that’s all he is and that’s how got to the top end,” Hunt said. “That’s how he got to hang out with guys like me, he’s a cheating little rat. That’s all he’ll ever be. You can’t be the greatest fighter in the world when you’re sticking needles in your ass and hiding under the Octagon from USADA [The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency]. How are you supposed to be the greatest fighter?”

He continued, “UFC have put these cheaters and these shortcut takers in the Hall of Fame. The way I see it, any guy that’s been caught doping or cheating—there goes everything you’ve earned. Your world titles mean nothing, you’ve been caught as a shortcut taker, that’s all you are.”

Hunt famously sued the organization after departing it, on the grounds that he did not consent to face fighters taking performance-enhancing substances. At UFC 200, Hunt battled Brock Lesnar, whom the promotion sought an exemption for as it pertained to testing prior to competition. Lesnar ultimately won the match, but failed his post-fight test for clomiphene, a medication typically prescribed to women struggling with infertility. That lawsuit wore Hunt down across the board, but it still persists today.

“Equality, that’s the only thing I’ve been about from the start. I said, ‘Dana it’s not fair, can we make this fair, these guys are cheating,” Hunt remarked. “’It’s not up to me Mark, it’s up to USADA,’ were his precise words. I only asked for an even playing field, now it’s come to this nearly a decade later. I’m separated now [from the UFC] and it’s hard because the toll and the damage is huge. My mental health is struggling, my finances are struggling, it’s been really, really hard. It’s cost me everything.”

Post-UFC competition has not entirely gone Hunt’s way, as he has taken to the boxing ring twice in hopes of picking up additional paychecks. He came up short after a six-rounder to Paul Gallen in 2020, but in 2022, he knocked out Sonny Bill Williams for his first professional victory. According to Hunt, things got shady in a hurry with those two matches. In July, those two athletes will face off against one another.

“I’d normally back Sonny Bill to win, but those guys ripped me off. I had a deal with Sonny Bill’s agent, Khoder Nasser. He shook my hand, but then he came to me after his boy got knocked out and said [my purse] is $140,000. I was promised $1 million for the Sonny Bill [fight], that’s why I am backing Gallen on this because even though I ran his bell, I’m going to go with Gallen because I don’t like being ripped off.”

Hunt repeated a scandalous reveal that he has suggested for at least a year and a half, that Gallen’s team asked him to take a fall when Hunt returned to the boxing ring. “Even in that fight, [Gallen’s team] offered me $3 million to take a dive in the first round. I said ‘no’ and even though I lost the fight I still rung his bell.”

It is currently unclear the contracts that bind Hunt, as he completed his UFC deal in 2018 and did not re-sign. While he fought in boxing, those bouts do not appear to be part of an exclusive, long-term deal. Despite this, Hunt suggests that he will not be able to fight until his current lawsuit against the UFC is in the books. Of all the organizations in the combat sports world, the 51-year-old looks to the Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship as one he would like test before he hangs up his gloves entirely.

“I’d love to fight in that BKFC arena in Rome, an amazing walkout, feeling the history of all those deaths. But I have to wait for my lawsuit to be over,” Hunt professed. “Fighting for the world title would be something I’ve always wanted, to be a modern-day gladiator. That doesn’t matter whether I’m in the ring, Octagon, or now the law courts. But to be in a place of history like Italy, where all these [people] died for their freedom, now that would be special.”

At his age, the Pride Fighting Championships veteran knows that his income streams in combat sports are going to be limited. Like few athletes in One Championship including Demetrious Johnson, Hunt has turned part of his focus to digital sports. He even likens gaming tournaments to fighting or like any other job.

“You’ll probably see me owning my own team at the Counter-Strike tournaments, I think Shaq’s got his own team. I would love to challenge Shaq’s team. Esports is really big and e-sporters train like athletes. They hire a house and sit there 18 hours a day gaming together, like an actual fight camp, ready to battle it out for $1 million. Some gamers make more money than sportsmen and women, I’d say.”

The ex-kickboxer suggests that top gamers get paid better than most fighters, and he is taking this new section of his career quite seriously.

“Fighting and gaming is the game, you go into camp, you learn the map as a Counter-strike team, it’s like a job. You learn timings, the things you do as a team on every single map you challenge on, so when you execute the plan, it’s like clockwork. So, when I go to fight camp, I go to training every day, I do my wrestling, I finish up with sparring, and then I go to fight, just like an esports team,” the longtime fighter compared.

Above all, esports have given Hunt an outlet to vent and get all of his anger, rage and violence out without harming another soul.

“Esports helped me when I was fighting because I could be the devil online, take all the frustration mentally up there, and then go back to training. My alter-ego is fierce; I could be who I wanted to be online, and then I can get off and be okay. Violence can happen when I’m gaming, my alter-ego is fulfilled, my cup is full, and I can just leave it,” the brick-fisted Hunt concluded.