Last night, in the main event of the action-packed UFC Auckland card, 43-year-old MMA legend Mark Hunt stepped onto the canvas with the much younger Derrick “The Black Beast” Lewis. Though Lewis was not without his moments in this fight, Hunt was able to turn back the clock, punishing his foe to an impressive, fourth-round TKO victory.
With this win, Hunt separated himself from a thunderous, knee-induced knockout loss to Alistair Overeem, and reaffirms himself as one of the game’s premier heavyweights – despite being one of the most senior fighters on the roster.
While this win over Lewis served to reassert Hunt as one of the best heavyweights in the UFC, questions about the aging Kiwi’s retirement came up at the post-fight press conference all the same. While Hunt acknowledged that his retirement is probably not far off, he explained that he hopes to fight out the remainder of his current UFC contract.
“I don’t think so,” Hunt said when asked if he would retire after this big win in his home country. “I like to get beat up. Shucks, there’s nothing else I’m good at. But I’ve got a couple of fights I want to finish. Why not see the contract out and then retire?”
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Hunt also used the post-fight presser to unleash another verbal assault on his recent foil Overeem, calling the former Strikeforce, Dream and K-1 champion a cheat.
“He’s always going to be a cheating bum to me, regardless of whether he beat me,” Hunt said. “All of his achievements, you don’t know whether they’re done by steroids or not. Sorry, Alistair, you’re a cheat.”
When do you think the legendary Mark Hunt should hang up the gloves? Do you want to see him rematch his recent adversary Alistair Overeem?
This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 6/11/2017.