UFC’s Ultimate Fighting Column: Cain Velasquez warns don’t write off Mark Hunt

UFC heavyweight champ Cain Velasquez is unsure about the future of Mark Hunt as a genuine contender while Vik Grujic’s UFC future looks grim.

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UFC heavyweight champ Cain Velasquez is unsure about the future of Mark Hunt as a genuine contender, saying: “We will really have to see what happens in his next fight”.

Speaking with The Daily Telegraph from Mexico, where he defends his belt against Fabricio Werdum on June 13, Velasquez refused to rule out another title run by the 41-year-old Australian — who has now lost consecutive fights for the first time in five years.

Indeed, the undisputed ‘Baddest Man on the Planet’ revealed how — for at least a few minutes late last year — he thought it would be Hunt, not Werdum, opposing him at UFC 188 on Sunday week.

Back in November, Hunt replaced an injured Velasquez on only 22 days notice at UFC 180 in Mexico City, eventually losing the interim title shot to Werdum via first round TKO.

“But I thought Mark was winning that fight,’’ says Velasquez, who sat ringside for the bout.

“Yes, he got caught by a knee but being made to take the fight on such short notice, it didn’t help. If Mark had been given a full preparation things might have been very different.

“But as they say, you’re only as good as your last fight.”

And unfortunately for Hunt, widely regarded among the toughest fighters in the company, the have both been loses — his most recent against American Stipe Miocic in May.

Had Hunt won the Adelaide headliner, he would likely have been catapulted into a title fight against the winner of Velasquez/Werdum at UFC 193 in Melbourne.

However, the result was a convincing TKO win for Miocic in the fifth, with the Cleveland native landing a whopping UFC record 361 strikes to 46.

“But I didn’t see that fight,’’ Velasquez concedes. “So we will see.

“Mark has come back before. And you look at Andrei Arlovski ... there’s a guy who was out of it and has really come back.”

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UFC have put Victorian fighter Vik Grujic on ice. Picture: Sarah Reed.

VIK Grujic, the fighter who essentially helped legalise the UFC in Victoria, has branded the company “disloyal” after being emailed his termination papers this week.

Only a fortnight after asking Dana White if he could open UFC 193 in Melbourne this November, Grujic was instead sacked along with several other fighters, including Queensland middleweight Dylan Andrews.

Ironically, it was the Melburnian who met with UFC Australia boss Tom Wright, Labor Sports Minister John Eren and other politicians late last year as the group created a blueprint for legalising the Octagon in Victoria.

“I was the only fighter invited to that meeting,’’ Grujic said yesterday. “We discussed a whole range of strategies for getting the UFC legalised in Melbourne and I was really keen to be a part of it.

“Then, when it gets across the line, I’ve been given my marching orders.

“It’s come as a real shock because I spent day and night campaigning for that decision. Personally convinced thousands of people to vote Labor.

“I will never speak badly of the UFC but it’s a tough one to take.”

Asked if he felt the company had been disloyal, Grujic conceded: “Well, I guess there isn’t any loyalty in the decision.

“It’s upsetting. I worked my butt of to help bring the UFC to Melbourne. To my hometown.

“It’s a shock.”

Grujic has lost three of his past four fights, including a points decision against fellow Aussie Brendan ‘Badger’ O’Reilly in May.

“But so many people have said that was fight of the night,’’ Grujic says. “And personally, I don’t feel like I lost it.

“I understand this is a tough business we’re in. That so often, results come down to a tick or a cross, that’s it.

“But I come to fight and still believe there are a lot of Aussie fight fans who appreciate and respect that.”

Undergoing nasal surgery within the fortnight, Grujic has already received several offers from rival organisations but remains “hopeful” the UFC will reconsider its decision.

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Ryan Bader’s ‘Mad Max’ impersonation.

UFC light heavyweight Ryan Bader is a massive Mad Max fan — and here’s the proof.

As these photographs provided by Australia’s Submission Radio prove, Bader is no stranger to tearing it up in his customised dune buggy.

Asked about the March incident, the American said: “I was at the sand dunes with my wife in a new two-seater Razor.

“We’re driving and all of a sudden the Razor isn’t performing like it should ... then I had no brakes. We went over this jump, it stopped and all of a sudden we were engulfed in flames.

“My wife is screaming, couldn’t get out of her harness. So I had to get her out of her harness and we ran 50 feet away, and the thing was a fireball. Gas tank went off, and what was left was just the frame.

“It was a scary little deal. So yeah, I do a Mad Max impression every once in a while”

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BACK on Cain Velasquez and the UFC champ is refusing to be drawn into a slanging match with Fabricio Werdum prior to their UFC 188 blockbuster.

In a recent interview, the Brazilian labelled Velasquez’s decision to withdraw from their initial title bout at UFC 180 as “strategy” -- claiming that rather than being injured, the champ was concerned at how well Werdum had acclimatised to Mexico City.

Asked by The Daily Telegraph for a response, Velasquez said: “Really? I didn’t know he said that.

“But whatever it was, that’s in the past now.

“Personally, I’m a lot better fighter now. I feel it in training, feel it every time I spar.

“My defence is better. My combinations are stronger, more explosive. The name of the game is improving and I’ve done that.”

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CONGRATULATIONS to Aussie middleweight Rob Whittaker whose wife Sofia has given birth to the couple’s first child — baby boy, Jack.

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IF ONLY Dana White was still paying fighters for innovative tweets. Surely, the UFC boss would have to throw some cash at Perth heavyweight Soa ‘The Hulk’ Palelei who recently plugged one of his sponsors, a plumbing company, with the following:

When "The Hulk" blocks the toilet he calls the best plumbers in in town! Drainmaster WA check them out ....

— Soa The Hulk Palelei (@soathehulk) June 1, 2015

Originally published as UFC’s Ultimate Fighting Column: Cain Velasquez warns don’t write off Mark Hunt