{"id":249256,"date":"2017-09-14T05:55:01","date_gmt":"2017-09-14T12:55:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?p=249256"},"modified":"2017-09-14T05:55:01","modified_gmt":"2017-09-14T12:55:01","slug":"mark-hunt-fine-dying-fighter-hes-got-conditions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/mark-hunt\/mark-hunt-fine-dying-fighter-hes-got-conditions\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Hunt is fine with dying as a fighter, but he’s got some conditions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fighting is a perilous game. Time and time again, we’ve seen premier combat sports athletes decline into physical and mental disrepair, oftentimes until they exist as little more than stuttering stacks of bones, entirely unrecognizable from the seemingly unstoppable behemoths they once were.<\/p>\n

In a poignant piece written on Wednesday for Players Voice<\/a>, UFC heavyweight Mark Hunt explored the decline so many fighters endure, explaining that he’s at peace with that decline \u2013 that he’s even ok with dying in a fight \u2013 so long as it all occurs on a level playing field. That means no performance enhancing drugs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cI will probably end my life fighting,” Hunt said (via MMAFighting.com<\/a>).\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been fighting since I was a child, fighting to get out of my circumstances. I used to make $300 a week, struggling to put food on the table but I have become one of the highest-paid fighters in the world. I feel that\u2019s destiny. This is what I\u2019m supposed to be doing and if I die fighting, that\u2019s fine. I just hope that if it does happen, it will be in an honest and fair competition.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cMy body is f**ked but my mind is still here. I\u2019ve still got my senses about me and I know what\u2019s right and wrong, which is the main thing. Sometimes I don\u2019t sleep well. You can hear me starting to stutter and slur my words. My memory is not that good anymore. I\u2019ll forget something I did yesterday but I can remember the s**t I did years and years ago. That\u2019s just the price I\u2019ve paid \u2013 the price of being a fighter. But I\u2019ve fought a lot of drug cheats and copped a lot of punishment from guys who were cheating and that\u2019s not right.”<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In this piece, Mark Hunt also plunged into the effects he believed PED-abusing opponents have had on his career:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cI\u2019d be champ already if it wasn\u2019t for the cheaters. I\u2019d probably be retired, sitting at home playing video games all day, eating KFC. These guys couldn\u2019t cut it with me if they weren\u2019t cheating. I\u2019ve missed out on sponsors and millions of dollars. It pisses me off when I think about it. If you take away all my fights against juicers, it would probably be half of my fight record gone. I paid my way to the top with blood and sweat, these guys had to enhance themselves to get here.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone says the first Bigfoot fight is one of the greatest heavyweight bouts of all time, but not for me. It\u2019s stained. That guy ruined everything. You take away his juice and he\u2019s nothing. The first fight we had, we nearly killed each other. The second fight, when he was clean, he didn\u2019t even last a round. He wasn\u2019t the same person as the one that almost frigging killed me.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

What do you think of these comments from Mark Hunt?<\/p>\n

This article first appeared on\u00a0<\/i>BJPenn.com<\/i><\/span><\/a>\u00a0on 9\/13\/2017.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fighting is a perilous game. Time and time again, we’ve seen premier combat sports athletes decline into physical and mental disrepair, oftentimes until they exist as little more than stuttering stacks of bones, entirely unrecognizable from the seemingly unstoppable behemoths they once were. In a poignant piece written on Wednesday for Players Voice, UFC heavyweight […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54430,"featured_media":149688,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[10154],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nMark Hunt is fine with dying as a fighter, but he's got some conditions | BJPenn.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Heavyweight MMA legend Mark Hunt goes in-depth on the tolls fighting is taking on his body, and on the possibility of dying in the ring.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/mark-hunt\/mark-hunt-fine-dying-fighter-hes-got-conditions\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" 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