We’re only a week removed from the UFC’s announcement that former Heavyweight Champion and current WWE superstar Brock Lesnar will be returning to the Octagon next month to face top 10 heavyweight Mark Hunt at UFC 200 , and Hunt is already throwing jabs at Lesnar.
While speaking with Fox Sports Australia , Hunt shared his thoughts on his UFC 200 opponent, and he threw some steroid accusations his way, saying that he thinks Lesnar is on steroids, but he’ll knock him out anyway.
“I think he’s juiced to the gills — and I still think I’m going to knock him out.”
Typically, a fighter entering the UFC’s ranks is required to give four months notice to assimilate to the company’s anti-doping program. But Lesnar, who will fight on July 9, was given an exemption by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) because he was not able to give the required notice due to the short-notice nature of his UFC return.
In Hunt’s opinion, it’s unfair to give Lesnar an exemption, especially since the UFC and USADA have been making a strong effort to clean up the sport.
“I don’t think that’s fair. I think it’s load of bulls***, I think it’s rubbish. I don’t think anyone should be exempt from testing. If they’re trying to clean the sport up, this is a bad way to do it. I don’t care who you are. It’s ridiculous.”
According to the USADA’s public database , Lesnar is yet to be tested. However, most are expecting that he will be tested more than anyone else who is on the UFC 200 card.
When Lesnar retired back in 2011, the UFC’s drug testing policy was not nearly as stringent, and fighters were not tested as regularly as they are in 2016. If Lesnar does end up testing positive for a banned or performance-enhancing substance, then his MMA career will likely be over as he’ll be suspended for two years, which would mean that he couldn’t return to the Octagon until he’s 41-years-old.
This isn’t the first time Lesnar has been accused of performance-enhancing drug use. Back in 2008, during an interview with ESPN, Lesnar was asked about steroid use, and he stormed out of the interview .
While he was off camera, you could hear him saying, “I’ve never failed a f***ing drug test.”
As of this writing, Lesnar has never failed a drug test, but that hasn’t stopped people from accusing him of using PEDs.
Currently, the odds-makers for UFC 200 have Lesnar as a slight underdog in his fight against Hunt, probably because the former WWE World Heavyweight Champion hasn’t competed in almost five years.
During his media tour, Lesnar blamed his last two UFC losses on diverticulitis, which is the disease the ultimately forced him into retirement in December of 2011. Now, Lesnar claims that for the first time in very long time, he’s at 100 percent, and the disease isn’t affecting him at all. If that’s the case, it’ll be interesting to see what Brock Lesnar at 100 percent looks like.
Many believe that Mark Hunt is one of the last people Lesnar should be stepping inside the Octagon with, because the WWE star has always had issues with strikers, and Hunt certainly is that. Lesnar is confident that he can take Hunt to the ground and impose his game-plan on him, which will undoubtedly include a ton of ground-and-pound.
In an interview with Paul Heyman, Lesnar said that he’s training for this fight the old-fashioned way, which means that he’s setting up his own camp and bringing in his own sparring partners. His way of training was criticized the first time around, and if he loses at UFC 200 , it’ll probably be criticized again.
[Photo by Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images]