Mark Hunt was recently handed the opportunity of a lifetime when Dana White and Lorenzo Fertitta asked him if he’d step in at short notice for an interim heavyweight title fight against Fabricio Werdum at UFC 180.
Hunt, who knocked out Roy Nelson just a month ago, says he immediately said yes when asked about the fight, but confesses that since he hadn’t been anticipating getting another fight until next year he’s been in “family mode” for the last few weeks and hasn’t been training, so he has a lot of weight to shed before the showdown on November 15th In Mexico.
“All my focus will just be on weight loss,” Hunt says of his pre-fight training camp. “I’ve got to lose a lot of kilos in a short amount of time.”
It’s believed that Hunt needs to shed in the region of 40lbs to make the 265lb limit, but this is nothing new for ‘The Super Samoan’ who also had a challenging weight cut for his last fight too.
Despite being on a six fight losing streak just four years ago, Hunt has completely turned his career around in the UFC’s Octagon with five wins (four by stoppage due to strikes), a ‘Fight Of The Year’ draw with Antonio Silva last year, and only one defeat to former champion Junior Dos Santos.
Werdum could well prove to be one of his toughest challenges to date though, with the Brazilian’s elite level jiu-jitsu in particular being a major threat to the New Zealander, while his striking game has also shown marked improvement during his second stint in the Octagon.
If Hunt can keep the fight standing though, his granite chin and hellacious punching power will ensure he’s never out of the fight and will only ever be one punch away from completing his fairy tale story by becoming the interim heavyweight champion of the world.
