There was bad blood behind the scenes today at the UFC Fight Night 142 weigh-ins in Adelaide, Australia, with Mark Hunt and his opponent Justin Willis reportedly getting into a scuffle backstage.
The two fighters had faced-off for the media just moments earlier after successfully weighing in for their co-main event encounter and there was clearly some tension between the two as they mouthed off at each other at close quarters.
Then they made their way backstage and almost immediately got into some kind of scuffle, with Hunt’s team-mate Tai Tuivasa, who headlines tomorrow night’s event opposite Junior dos Santos, being overheard saying, “I’ll fuckin’ smash you both.”
Tyson Pedro, also a team-mate of Hunt’s, was just stepping out onto the stage for his face-off with ‘Shogun’ Rua when this all happened and was also seen stepping backstage again to see what was happening as things got heated and later he spoke about what he’d seen.
“It’s disrespectful,” Pedro told Submission Radio afterwards. “I know you’ve got pump up yourself, but it’s like me with ‘Shogun’—‘Shogun’ is a legend and Mark is a legend, they’re from the same time. And I don’t know if [Willis] knows he’s in Australia and that there’s no rules outside of where we are.”
“I think he’s trying to pump himself up more than he’s trying to pump Mark up, and you don’t want a pumped up Mark. If anything that’s the worst thing you can do.
“I’ve gone back and they’re trying to stop the fight, but you can’t disrespect our lead horse. We’re not promoting fighting outside of the Octagon, but don’t go and say that to our lead horse and then come out and say something about our team.
“I’m pretty sure he went at Mark and Tai was just there.Don’t go at our team; we’re all here and we’re in Australia so it’s probably not a good idea.”
