UFC star Mark Hunt declares Fabricio Werdum a coward

Mark Hunt v Frank Mir, UFC Heavyweight at Brisbane Entertainment Centre. Photo/Getty Images

Mark Hunt still loves Dana White.

But as for ever apologising over those Instagram posts which labelled his boss a bald, err, mothersomething?

"No, I don't take it back," Hunt deadpans. "Why should I?

"Dana White's my boss, I love the guy.

"But at the time I wrote that, no, I wasn't happy.

"Dana was taking a $1 million fight purse from me. That, and the $150K I'd already spent on my fight camp.

"I'd been cleared by two Australian specialists, and still I was missing out? I think it's justified what I said."

Nines weeks after being sidelined by the UFC — and ordered to undergo extensive brain testing — Hunt is set for an emphatic comeback on Australian soil, against American Curtis Blaydes at UFC 221.

As revealed by The Daily Telegraph yesterday, Hunt will face the No. 9 ranked heavyweight in Perth on February 11.

The announcement comes over two months after White first suspended the Minto father-of-six for admitting in a Players Voice interview to slurring his words, struggling to sleep and forgetting incidents from a day earlier.

Despite subsequently receiving clearances from two Australian specialists, Hunt was still removed from a UFC Sydney headliner in November and then sent to Las Vegas for further brain testing, which he passed.

Amid the chaos, the Sydney knockout king also directed a series of expletive-laden Instagram posts at White which, while unprintable here, accused the UFC boss of seeking payback for his suing the company over a separate issue involving rival Brock Lesnar.

Asked if he sought out White during his recent stay in Las Vegas for medical testing, Hunt laughed: "Ah, I don't think Dana wants to hang out with me.

"Actually, I think he'd prefer me buried in a grave somewhere.

"But, you know, shucks, pulling me from that Sydney card wasn't right. My mental wellbeing was fine and I've proved it now a number of times.

"So it's done.

"I've been to Las Vegas, fulfilled my duties and shown everyone I'm good."

Yet with his White beef now extinguished, Hunt has instead turned his wrath towards a "chicken shit" Fabricio Werdum.

While the Brazilian is currently ranked No. 3, Hunt says he should be stripped of his ranking after repeatedly dodging his requests for a showdown, most recently for Perth.

"Fabricio Werdum is a coward," he said. "Chicken shit.

"And I think it's got to the stage where the UFC should just tell him he has to fight me.

"Either that, or he loses his ranking.

"Because you can't sit around trying to protect your place in the division. That's not how things work.

"Fabricio needs to either stand up or move the f ... aside. That's it."