On July 8, on the undercard of the anticipated UFC 213, Russian-Ukrainian heavyweight Alexey Oleynik built on the momentum of his dazzling, Ezekiel choke defeat of Viktor Pesta with a slick rear-naked choke defeat of former contender Travis Browne. With this impressive win, Oleynik set himself up for more big opportunities inside the heavyweight top-10, and from the sounds of it, he’s already got an opponent in mind. His desired opponent is legendary knockout artist Mark Hunt.
Oleynik made his callout of Hunt on Instagram, explaining that he’d been waiting for Hunt to agree to fight him for two weeks.
“I waited for two weeks to confirm this fight, but today I was told that Mark Hunt did not agree to fight me,” Oleynik said in his post.
Surprisingly, Hunt was quick to confirm that, while he hadn’t been contacted about a fight with Oleynik, he wasn’t interested in it. Instead, he’s hoping to fight Fabricio Werdum, who he lost to back in late 2014.
“Hey ‘Alexeyholeydik,’” Hunt said in his Facebook rebuttal. “Never heard about any fight with you, but if I did I’d beat you silly anyway. I want Fabricio Werdum. Everyone message Fabricio and tell him I want to dance.”
Hunt was last seen in the cage in June, when he stopped streaking contender Derrick Lewis with fourth round punches. Werdum, meanwhile, was out-duelled by Alistair Overeem at UFC 213.
Would you rather see Mark Hunt fight Alexey Oleynik or Fabricio Werdum?
This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 8/1/2017.