Dana White responds to Mark Hunt’s expletive filled tirade directed at him

Mark Hunt erupted earlier this week when he was pulled from his main event spot at UFC Fight Night in Sydney, Australia over “medical concerns” before he was replaced by former heavyweight champion Fabricio Werdum.

In a series of Instagram posts, Hunt exploded on UFC president Dana White while revealing that the source of those concerns that cost him the fight stem from an interview he did earlier this year where the 43-year old veteran admitted to memory loss and slurring his speech due to a long career in fighting.

“My body is f–ked but my mind is still here. I’ve still got my senses about me and I know what’s right and wrong, which is the main thing,” Hunt wrote in the story.

“Sometimes I don’t sleep well. You can hear me starting to stutter and slur my words. My memory is not that good anymore. I’ll forget something I did yesterday but I can remember the s–t I did years and years ago. That’s just the price I’ve paid — the price of being a fighter. But I’ve fought a lot of drug cheats and copped a lot of punishment from guys who were cheating and that’s not right.”

On Thursday, UFC president Dana White responded to Hunt by saying that he holds no ill will towards the former K-1 kickboxer and multi-time UFC veteran.

Nevertheless, White says that sometimes the promotion has to err on the side of caution, especially when an athlete is openly admitting to potential neurological issues ahead of a five round heavyweight fight.

“He’s always going off on me,” White told TMZ. “Listen, sometimes you’ve got to protect these guys from themselves. That’s what we’re looking into right now and he made a statement that I’ve hated him forever. I don’t hate Mark Hunt at all. I never hated Mark Hunt. He knows that. I was actually really good to Mark Hunt. I don’t expect an apology at all.”

Hunt hasn’t said much since that long string of messages on Instagram where he tore into White and the UFC over pulling him from the fight due to what he believes is the ongoing lawsuit he’s filed against the company.

Of course, Hunt isn’t the first fighter to get pulled from a fight due to comments made publicly over a potential injury ahead of an event.

Former heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez raised several red flags thanks to an interview he conducted last year while discussing an injury that was causing him severe pain with surgery that was already pending after his fight was concluded. The comments eventually made their way to the Nevada State Athletic Commission, who opted to pull him from the fight over medical concerns. Velasquez was immediately pulled from the card before having the neck surgery that has kept him out of action in all of 2017.