UFC 160 fighter Mark Hunt has had a rough few weeks that culminated in the heavyweight ending up in surgery to deal with a nasty staph infection on his leg.
Hunt fought in May where he lost by knockout to former UFC heavyweight champion Junior Dos Santos. The fight came just days after Hunt was able to get to the United States after having his travel visa delayed by weeks because of a past run in with law enforcement while in America.
Now back at home in New Zealand, Hunt is dealing with a whole new ailment that put him under the doctor’s scalpel, and he is taking several rounds of antibiotics to deal with an infection on his leg that developed after the fight.
Hunt first released the news via his Twitter account stating that he was in the hospital for surgery and still had more operations to go until he was finished.
In a reply to a fan, Hunt revealed that he had an infected hematoma on his leg in addition to a broken toe and joked that he was “a walking infection”.
Hunt then had a friend film a video of him in the hospital, revealing the nasty nature of the staph infection which literally ate through the skin and muscle in his leg. Be forewarned the video of Hunt’s leg is not for the faint of heart.
Hunt is the latest fighter in the MMA world to suffer from a staph infection, which unfortunately has become somewhat common in the fight industry.
Last year, Bellator light heavyweight contender “King” Mo Lawal dealt with a similar infection that kept him out of action for several months and literally brought him to the brink where his life was on the line.
Other fighters such as Kevin Randleman, Jason “Mayhem” Miller and Drew McFedries have also gone through similar battles with staph infections in the past.
The worst case of the disease hitting an MMA fighter happened when former WEC and UFC fighter Cole Escovedo was afflicted with a staph infection that caused paralysis and not only almost ended his fighting career, but for a time took away his ability to walk.
It appears Hunt caught the infection in time to deal with it through surgery and treatment, but it doesn’t make the graphic nature of the disease any easier to deal with right now. At the time of his last Twitter post, Hunt had not updated when he expected to be released from the hospital.
Damon Martin is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report.
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