Mark Hunt on fighting American Top Team cohort “Bigfoot” Silva: It’s a job

Photo by Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images.

Sometimes, you have to do a job that you don’t typically want to do. But you do it because, well, it’s best for you.

That’s basically what’s going on with Mark Hunt and his upcoming “UFC: Brisbane” main event against Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva. He may not have wanted to fight Silva before, but Hunt was presented the opportunity to fight him and reluctantly accepted the bout against his American Top Team colleague.

“It’s just one of those things – it’s an opportunity,” Hunt said during a press conference to promote the UFC card. “He’s a top-four fighter [and] I don’t think I’m in the top 10 at all. It’s a good opportunity for me … This is a sport and we both want to be the best fighters on the planet and it’s just another step forward for me. It’s one of those things, it’s a job. To be the best fighter you have to sometimes fight people.

“It is what it is.”

The two have shared an affiliation with the Florida-based MMA gym for quite some time now, and affiliates from said gym rarely fight each other. Hunt admitted that he said in previous interviews the he refused to fight “Bigfoot” unless it was for a title.

But it’s part of the job, Hunt said, and beating Silva is something that has to take place. At the end of the night, it won’t matter where the win puts Hunt – just as long as he’s not still ranked outside the top 10.

“For me, it doesn’t matter where it places me,” he said. “If ‘Bigfoot’s’ No. 4 and I beat him, just put me somewhere above him.”