Hunt: One hit, there goes your f@$%in black belt

Mark Hunt appeared recently on Australia’s Submission Radio ahead of his fight with Fabricio Werdum for the UFC intermediate heavyweight championship at UFC 180 in Mexico City on Nov 15. The wide-ranging interview included Hunt’s opinion of black belts, fighting at 7,200 feet, and cutting over 30 pounds in under three weeks.

Werdum is a two-time Brazilian jiu-jitsu world champion, and a two-time ADCC world heavyweight champion, with black belts in BJJ and Judo. However, Hunt has a plan.

“Well everyone’s a world class ground fighter until they get a punch to the face.” said Hunt as transcribed by Nate Wilcox for BE. “So that’s how I deal with all these ground fighters like everyone else. I hit ’em in the head and there goes your F—ing black belt.”

“I know his game will be to push the pace to try and get me tried, to try and shoot the take down so I’m on the ground, you know what I mean? It’s the same thing. If he tries to stand and bang, well then good for me. If he doesn’t, then he’s gotta work his game plan. So I feel I’ve got an advantage on all angles, so you know it’s nothing new to me.”

“First round walk away knock out.”

Old school fans will remember a gasping Oleg Taktarov digging down to hell to beat Tank Abbot at UFC 6 in Casper, WY, which is at 5,200 feet elevation. Mexico City is another 2,000 feet higher, a fact that is not lost on Hunt.

“It’s a different level and it’s pretty polluted over here in Mexico City,” said Hunt as transcribed by Karim Zidan for BE. “So you know training outdoors is not a good thing. We were training outdoors the other day and my throat was getting sore and my nose was getting sore. So the harder I worked out, the more sore I got because of the pollution. So yeah I had to go indoors, back to the air conditioning.

“It’s something you gotta work towards.”

“I had a couple of weeks in Denver when I fought a gus named Ben Rothwell. If I didn’t get those two weeks up there I would have lost the fight. So that was my first time at altitude, and Denver’s 5000 feet up. It’s not an easy feeling to fight at altitude because you never get your second wind. You need to spend like two months over there.

“People who saw that fight, they thought these guys are unfit, but they don’t realize that anything at altitude is just hard work. Unless you’ve been there a couple of months or so.”

“Three weeks is not enough time, but I’m taking my opportunity with both hands and I’m gonna run with it. So we’ll see how we go.”

And Hunt has to contend with a fast and large weight cut to make 265.

“The thing about this is I didn’t get much time for this to be honest,” said Hunt as transcribed by Karim Zidan for BE. “It’s like three weeks, two and a half weeks. So losing ten and a half kilos in two and a half weeks is not an easy task. And also coming over to the other side of the world. ‘Cause I’m living in Sydney, so when my family is going to sleep, I’m getting up. But it’s a totally different side of the world, and when you teach your brain how to do certain things, you teach yourself it’s time to get up, you teach yourself it’s time for breakfast, it’s time for training, you know all that sort of jazz and you have to teach these things to your wife, and then when you get to the other side of the world it’s the totally opposite.”

“Fitness goes in about 24 hours if you don’t keep working at it, you know what I mean? But I’m feeling pretty good right now, you know I’m feeling really good. I’m right on target with weight. I’m looking forward to fighting.”

“I’ve got no excuse about not making weight in three weeks. Even ten and a half kilos. I gotta talk to Dana about a few things, but you know if you can’t make weight, don’t take the fight. We’ll just chew an arm off. I’ve got a lot of weight on me (that) I can lose, so it doesn’t matter. I’m making weight so there’s no problem.”

“That would’ve been my third weight cut ever. So I’m just starting to get used to how this all works, you know what I mean? Unlike the smaller guys that have to fight and make weight, now those guys hardly have a bit of fat on them. I’m a big guy with a lot of fat on me so it’s easy for me to lose it.

“I’m getting used to these things. I know how far I’m at and what I can cut, so I think the media exaggerates a bit about certain things.”