Mark Hunt: Cheaters like Jon Jones and Brock Lesnar ‘Don’t Deserve Respect’

There are no shortage of fighters who speak out against performance enhancing drug use in the sport of mixed martial arts but none are louder than heavyweight contender Mark Hunt.

With a long history of fighting opponents who have faced failed drug tests either before or after he faced them, Hunt rarely bites his tongue when the subject of doping in the UFC comes up.

In fact, Hunt has filed a rather public lawsuit against the UFC, former champion Brock Lesnar as well as UFC president Dana White after he faced the hulking heavyweight at UFC 200 back in 2016 and it was later revealed that the WWE superstar tested positive for a banned substance.

Lately, Hunt has been even angrier than usual after Lesnar officially declared his return to the UFC back in July with plans to grant him a shot at heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier in his first fight back.

Ahead of his next fight against Alexei Oleinik at UFC Fight Night in Russia on Saturday, Hunt took shots at Lesnar and former UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones, who he believes shouldn’t get a pass in the court of public opinion after being busted for using banned substances on two different occasions.

“They’re all weak. People talk about them being great fighters. They’re weak,” Hunt said on Wednesday. “You get up and go to your job everyday, do you do steroids to do your job? No. So I just think they’re weak people. People talk about Jon Jones and Brock Lesnar being the greatest fighters. No, they’re just the greatest cheaters. Why do we give them respect? They don’t deserve respect. They’ve cheated to get to the top.

“These guys are weak minded people. They take shortcuts to be here. We shouldn’t allow this in our sport. This isn’t my sport. This is our sport, all of us watching.”

Jones has routinely been mentioned as one of the greatest fighters in the history of the sport but Hunt believes a positive drug test should disqualify him from that conversation automatically.

Instead, Hunt points to fighters who have never faced any scrutiny over drug testing while putting together an incredible resume as the athletes who should be most admired in the sport.

“Fedor [Emelianenko] has not been cheating. He’s one of the greatest heavyweights. “Mighty Mouse” [Demetrious Johnson], he’s been the champion for a long, long time. Has he been caught cheating? No,” Hunt said. “There’s so many guys who are champions that deserve that sort of accolade.

“Not these cheating, weak minded pricks.”