UFC fighter Mark Hunt has filed a civil lawsuit against the UFC, the organisation's president Dana White and his opponent at UFC 200, former heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar.

The 42-year-old New Zealand born MMA veteran had attempted to resolve the issue in-house with the UFC, but after multiple failed attempts to campaign for change in the handling of drug testing, he filed at the Nevada District Court seeking financial damages. Hunt's attorney told ESPN the sought damages are "in the millions" of dollars.

Hunt has accused the promotion of racketeering and fraud, and is seeking compensation for having to fight against Lesnar despite the UFC allegedly knowing he tested positive for banned substances, citing the effects the loss took on his health. He lost the fight last July by unanimous decision, a result which has since been overturned to a no contest.

On Wednesday, Hunt filed a suit accusing the UFC of “affirmatively circumvented and obstructed fair competition for their own benefit, including being complicit in doping proliferation under the guise of advancing ‘the best anti-doping program in all of professional sports.’”

Hunt also spoke about how the UFC achieved this “by means including but not limited to various and rampant purported use exemptions, drug testing exemptions and by failure to enforce its own policies.”

According to Hunt, the UFC deliberately hid all knowledge that Lesnar had tested positive. He says Lesnar and the UFC had four months to put him through Usada testing but elected to do it one week before fight night, not providing enough time for the results to come through. After the fight, he allegedly tested positive for banned substances - Clomiphene and 4-hydroxyclomiphene - believed to be used in close approximation to anabolic steroids and the latter used as an anti-estrogenic.

Lesnar is the third fight in a row in which Hunt has had to face someone who either tested or went on to test positive. He also fought Antonio Silva to a draw despite his elevated testosterone levels and beat Frank Mir, who had tested positive for Oral turinabol metaboilites, commonly known as a form of anabolic steroid.

He also cited the fact that the UFC deliberately hid Vitor Belfort’s banned substance issue in the build-up to his fight against Jon Jones, alleging that the Brazilian fighter had 2.5x the normal amount of testosterone in his system. Despite this the fight went ahead with Jones securing a fourth round submission victory at UFC 152.

The lawsuit went on to say: “Without HUNT’s knowledge or consent, the UFC conspired and caused LESNAR, a doping fighter, to fight HUNT, a clean fighter, despite the fact that LESNAR used substances banned by the UFC, USADA and WADA.” He has filed a RICO charge, looking to charge all who were complicit in the cover-up.

“To prevent the embarrassment of a subsequent cancelled event, damage to the reputation and brand of the UFC, and in direct pursuit of profit, to the detriment of fighter safety, in violation of state and federal law as described further below,” this lending more credence to the idea the UFC might’ve been saving face with the decision to turn a blind eye.

The decision to file a lawsuit comes at a precarious time for the Australian based fighter, as he is slated to fight Alistair Overeem at UFC 209 in March, who he approached in an Instagram picture looking to ensure a clean fight in March.