Mark Hunt’s high-profile case against the UFC, Brock Lesnar, and Dana White will live to see another day in court.
A report arrived this evening from MMA Fighting revealing that the suit had outlasted a motion to dismiss by the defendants, and yesterday (Thurs., June 1, 2017) Hunt’s attorney’s filed an amended complaint in the U.S. District Court, specifically the District of Nevada. Hunt’s primary complaint alleges that the UFC, Lesnar, and White committed racketeering, fraud, battery and civil conspiracy with their handling of Lesnar’s return to battle him at last summer’s UFC 200, a bout which the hulking former heavyweight champion defeated “The Super Samoan” but failed USADA drug tests before and in conjunction with the fight.
In the new complaint, which was published in the MMA Fighting report, Hunt’s attorneys insist that Lesnar, White, and the UFC knew that Lesnar was on performance-enhancing drugs heading into UFC 200, but chose to force him by USADA’s strict rules anyway in order to have him perform at the midsummer pay-per-view blowout. Hunt’s counsel suggested that their client was damaged both monetarily and physically by facing Lesnar in the complaint:
“LESNAR, WHITE, and UFC, acted in concert as set forth fully above, to defraud HUNT and commit a battery against HUNT by a scheme to knowingly pit HUNT, a clean fighter, against LESNAR, a doping fighter, to the wrongful benefit of Defendants and to the detriment of HUNT.”
The entire complaint stems from Lesnar’s failure for banned estrogen blocking substance clomiphene, for which he tested positive both in an out-of-competition test before the fight and on the night of the contest. Oddly enough, the pre-fight result did not come back in time for Lesnar to be ruled out with a potentiall USADA trangression, essentially defeating the entire purpose of an out-of-competition test while simultaneously allowing Lesnar to fight and batter Hunt at UFC 200.
Lesnar was suspended by the Nevada Athletic Commission (NAC) and USADA, and the NAC changed his win over Hunt to a no contest in addition to fining him a lofty $250,000 of his purse. But the complaint suggests something far more suspicious that would require a much more severe punishment, as the case allegedly details a series of back-and-forth texts from Hunt and White where Hunt supposedly asked White what would happen if Lesnar tested positive, to which White replied USADA was “testing the shit out of him.”
Indeed they were, but that didn’t amount to a whole lot when the results didn’t come back before the bout took place. That adds to the fact that Lesnar was granted a conditional waiver of USADA’s normal policy requiring returning fighters to be in the testing pool for four months before they actually fight, as he was only tested for about a month prior to the bout. Hunt questioned White about the controversial waiver via text, to which White replied they had “made a move to get a deal done” with Vince McMahon of WWE to get Lesnar into the octagon. White allegedly affirmed that Lesnar would conform to USADA testing guidelines by stating, “We went after Brock. He has no problem doing whatever tests USADA wants.”
The case, which is being handled by Hunt’s lawyers Christina Denning, Scott Ingold and Joseph Gonnella also suggested that the UFC pushed back the signing of the bout so he could avoid USADA tests, an allegation made potentially viable by the fact Lesnar said in interviews he had been discussing a fight with the UFC for months:
“On information and belief, WHITE and UFC were intentionally delaying the announcement because LESNAR was using banned substances and needed additional time in order to circumvent testing procedures.”
Finally, the amended complaint cited previous drug test failures by Hunt’s opponents, and also one by controversial retiring MMA veteran Vitor Belfort, as evidence that the UFC has covered up PED scandals before. Had Hunt known they were allegedly doing so again, the complaint read, he would have asked for a larger purse or simply protected his interests:
“Had HUNT known of WHITE, UFC and LESNAR’s doping scheme, HUNT would have declined the fight, negotiated a far more lucrative agreement contemplating a clean fighter being subjected to hand-to-hand combat with a doping fighter, or otherwise protected his interests,”
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