After a vicious war of words, Gordon Ryan and Mark Hunt could potentially be gearing up for a fight to settle their newly established Twitter beef.
Their disagreement centers around the UFC’s recent split from their partnership with the United States Anti-Doping Agency aka USADA. The split has been viewed by many to have been caused by USADA’s unwavering professionalism and refusal to bend the rules for fighters like Conor McGregor. McGregor hoped to make a late 2023 comeback but missed the cutoff date to complete the minimum six months required in the USADA testing pool to be cleared to fight.
It’s been rumored that Dana White expected USADA to make some sort of special exception for their superstar and allow him to come back without completing the minimum six months in the testing pool. When denied, White and the UFC refused to extend their deal with USADA and have now partnered with an obscure and lesser-known testing agency. Unsurprisingly, many are calling this move ridiculously shady and outright corrupt.
Hence the war of words between Gordon Ryan and Mark Hunt. As both fighters find themselves on opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of their view on the usage of performance-enhancing drugs, and the UFC’s split with USADA which is set to take effect in January of 2024.
Gordon Ryan and Mark Hunt beefing after their scathing Twitter war
“If the UFC ‘regresses’ back to the old days, this is amazing news,” Gordon Ryan said (H/T MMA Mania). “The reason people watch professional sports is almost exclusively for entertainment value.”
“Few people who watch pro sports have any real desire to excel at those same sports,” Ryan continued. “So really, they are just watching for the most entertainment. The higher the testosterone, the more physical the athletes are, the less prone to injury they are, the faster they recover, the longer they can compete, and the more entertaining and high-paced they are. The better they look, the more attention they draw, the more money they make.”
Once Mark Hunt got wind of these statements, he was not happy. Hunt is notoriously and vehemently against the usage of PED’s. So, it made sense that he took to Instagram to respond in what is now a deleted post.
“What does this idiot know about fighting,” Hunt wrote. “(Gordon Ryan) maybe have at least one proper before you talking d—khead. Maybe I should get on the sauce and stomp your face (and) see how you like it.”
Gordon Ryan responds, allegedly accepts Hunt’s challenge to fight
“If you read the post,” Ryan began. “You’d either see the validity in the arguments or offer up a decent rebuttal that was factually based. You did nothing but blabber out of your fat, miserable mouth. We can fight any time you’d like. You may very well knock me out before I get a hold of a legs, but then again, you also may not. And I’m very willing to take my chances. Miserable f—k.”
Later on, Gordon Ryan also posted to his Instagram story, saying: “Fear no one- ever. I’d bet heavily on me (by the way).”
Who do you think wins if Mark Hunt and Gordon Ryan actually threw down in an MMA fight?