Mark Hunt Files Civil Lawsuit Accusing UFC of Conspiring to Cover Up Brock Lesnar's Steroid Use

UFC heavyweight Mark Hunt has filed a civil lawsuit in the State of Nevada against Zuffa LLC (doing business as Ultimate Fight Championship), UFC President Dana White and UFC heavyweight Brock Lesnar. Hunt accused the UFC and its agents of “being complicit in doping proliferation under the guise of advancing ‘the best anti-doping program in all of professional sport.’”

“I want the UFC to understand it’s not OK to keep doing what they’re doing,” Hunt explained the reason for the lawsuit to ESPN.com. “They’re allowing guys to do this. They had a chance to take all the money from this guy, because he’s a cheater, and they didn’t. What message is that sending to the boys and girls who want to be a fighter someday? The message is, ‘You just have to cheat like this and it’s OK.’ In society, if you commit a crime, you pay. Why is it different in MMA? It’s hurt the business, so it’s even worse. They need to be held accountable for this.”

Hunt’s lawsuit explicitly accused the UFC of conspiring with Lesnar to arrange a matchup against Hunt at UFC 200 in spite of knowledge that Lesnar was using banned substances. The lawsuit suggested that the UFC may have knnown Lesnar was using anabolic steroids and/or other performance-enhancing drugs along with post cycle therapy (PCT) drugs to help him come off the steroids.

The lawsuit alleged that the very same UFC Anti-Doping Policy that is supposed to protect the health and safety of clean athletes is actually used to “wrongfully [jeopardize] fighter health and safety for profit”. Hunt believes the UFC is guilty of placing “drug-enhanced fighters” into the octagon with “clean fighters”. The UFC is said to have promoted known steroid users through the use of exemptions to the doping rules, exemptions from drug testing and a blatant failure to enforce its own doping rules.

Lesnar was granted an exemption to the 4-month drug-testing period was put in place to ensure that the MMA athletes – and especially those coming out of retirement -- have not used or benefited from the use of anabolic steroids and performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) leading up to the fight. This was done in spite of the fact that the UFC, White and Lesnar were in discussions for over 4 months prior to UFC 200. Thus, Lesnar knew he was going to fight in UFC for at least four months prior to the event.

Even Jeff Novtizky, the fame anti-doping government crusader who was hired as the UFC Vice President of Athlete Health and Performance, was fully aware of the UFC’s active initiative to help Lesnar evade the drug-testing requirements of the UFC Anti-Doping Policy.

Specifically, Novitzky revealed in an email sent to the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) that Lesnar was promised that he would be able to avoid any UFC drug testing until he actually executed his UFC 200 bout agreement. This meant no surprise or unannounced random drug-testing in March, April or May of his negotiations with White and UFC.

Lesnar ultimately got caught with clomiphene metabolites in his urine before UFC 200. But the results were reportedly not available in time to stop Lesnar’s participation in UFC 200. Lesnar went on to defeat Hunt and collect a $2.5 million paycheck in the process. 

Lesnar was ultimately fined $250,000 and suspended for one year by NSAC but this didn’t stop Lesnar from pocketing millions of dollars. Nor did it stop the $4 billion dollar sale of UFC (to which White profited to the tune of $360 million) in the days that followed the success of UFC 200. Hunt suggested the big money bout involving Lesnar made UFC 200 a big success and helped UFC, Lesnar and White all profit quite handsomely.

Source:

Okamoto, B. (January 11, 2017). Mark Hunt files civil suit in wake of Brock Lesnar's positive tests. Retrieved from http://www.espn.com/mma/story/_/id/18447661/mark-hunt-files-civil-suit-ufc-dana-white-brock-lesnar-relation-ufc-200-fight