After last three fights on UFC contract, Mark Hunt plans to leave organization

It’s been a tumultuous couple of years for Mark Hunt fighting for (and with) the UFC, and he’s ready to move on to the next stage of his career.

The 43-year-old MMA and kickboxing veteran recently appeared on Submission Radio to talk about where he stands with the world’s largest fight promotion. Hunt had a disagreement with the UFC recently after he was pulled from a Nov. 19 show due to comments he made to “Players Voice”. In that article, Hunt admitted to having issues with his memory and that he sometimes slurred his words, which prompted officials to seek further testing before allowing Hunt to compete again.

Hunt was not happy with the decision and suggested that it was tied to his ongoing lawsuit against the UFC, company president Dana White, and Brock Lesnar over the promotion allegedly knowing that Lesnar was taking performance enhancing drugs ahead of a fight with Hunt at UFC 200 in July 2016.

Regardless, the UFC has since deemed Hunt fit to fight and he meets Curtis Blaydes at UFC 221 on Feb. 11 in Perth, Australia. According to Hunt, that’s one of the last three fights on his current contract, and he was asked if his run in the Octagon will soon be over.

“Well, for the UFC, yeah,” Hunt said. “That will be the end of my career in the UFC. I have two fights left and that’s it. You probably know the path I’ve had with the UFC, but you know, it’s business. I haven’t done nothing wrong, I just don’t like to be treated like s**t – even if I’m an employee or whatever and I speak my mind about it and, you know, I’ll go from there. So like I said, three fights left and I’ll move on.”

As for where the New Zealand native will go, Hunt would like to continue fighting overseas both in the Oceanic region and in Japan, where he started his MMA career with the PRIDE promotion back in 2004.

“Well, of course I’m looking at going and fighting global fights for New Zealand, Australia and probably Japan,” Hunt said. “It depends on what happens. Like I said, I’m still chasing the dream of that world title. I’m in a good position to get a finish in this fight, beat this guy, then move on to the top end. It’s not gonna be easy, but I’ll see what happens and hopefully I get next in line for the world title shot, go from there. So, see what happens.”

Listen to the full interview below: