Mark Hunt has filed a civil suit against the UFC, UFC President Dana White and former UFC Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar. Hunt’s lawyer, Christina Denning, believes that Lesnar conspired to purposely break anti-doping regulations for his UFC 200 bout against Hunt.
“There’s nothing deterring Brock Lesnar from doping, getting $5 million-plus from pay-per-view and the purse, and just turning around to pay a nominal fraction of that when they have no desire to come back to the UFC, anyway,” Denning told MMA Junkie. “The avenue to punish Brock is there. It’s just not being executed by the UFC, which is a problem, because this is what happens in every situation.”
While Hunt remains committed to fighting for the UFC at this time, Denning also believes he’s correct in that he should be compensated for fighting a doped up Lesnar at UFC 200.
“We’re not making any allegations as to (which defendant is more responsible than the other),” Denning said. “We just want a bunch of money based on what the statutes allow us. There’s punitive damages at issue here sufficient to punish the UFC, and the UFC has a lot of money. If you’re suing somebody for fraud and punitive damages, and they only make $100,000 a year, the jury is not going to award that much in damages. But when you’re the UFC and the jury sits and hears about how awful and how egregious the pattern of conduct was leading up to UFC 200 and going back to prior fights, knowing how much the UFC’s worth, they can award an amount sufficient to deter future conduct.”
Hunt will be competing next at UFC 209, which is taking place on Saturday, March 4 and Hunt will be taking on Alistair Overeem at the event.
