UFC: Late night fight for Hunt

Mark Hunt's weight cut is on track ahead of his interim heavyweight title bout. Photo / Getty

The time of the fight is another hurdle for Mark Hunt ahead of his interim heavyweight title shot at UFC 180 in Mexico City this weekend.

Hunt's five-round bout with Brazilian Fabricio Werdum (18-5-1) isn't scheduled to begin until 11pm local time on Saturday night (6pm, Sunday NZT), which will be the latest time of the day Hunt has ever fought.

The 40-year-old has 64 professional fights to his name across boxing, kickboxing and MMA but even in his main event days in K-1 kickboxing he would rarely fight after 9 or 10pm.

"It doesn't matter whether it's going to be tough or not, it's too late to worry," Hunt told the Herald.

The Super Samoan has been on a tear to cut weight and acclimatise to Mexico City's altitude of 2250m above sea level since he took the fight to meet Werdum after UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez suffered a knee injury.

Hunt and his fitness trainer Alex Flint arrived in Mexico two weeks ago and the rest of his team joined him shortly after.

"It's a hard slog to get to the top end and if it was for everyone to do then everyone would be here," Hunt said.

Hunt (10-8-1) last fought when he knocked out Roy Nelson at UFC Fight Night 52 in Japan in September, while Werdum's last trip to the cage came in April when the 37-year-old comfortably outpointed Travis Browne.

Hunt's weight cut is on track and he only needs to shed another 5kg by Saturday (NZT) to make the UFC's 120.6kg limit for heavyweights.

He began his water-loading today, which will help him shed a few more kilograms and he should face less of a scramble than the Nelson bout where he needed to drop 6kg in the final 18 hours before the weigh-in.

Hunt and Werdum are nearly living on top of each other in their Mexican hotel, which occurred inadvertently as the UFC generally try to book fighters to stay in other parts of their accommodation.

They both have access to the same pool that is behind their rooms and Hunt even posted a photo of the pair to social media this week.

"We'll be a lot closer on Saturday night," Hunt quipped. "For me, and like him, he's a christian man, it's just one of those things. [Fighting] is our job and how we feed our families."

- Daniel Richardson travelled to Mexico courtesy of Sky Arena and the UFC