For the first time in four-and-a-half years, former UFC heavyweight champion and present day WWE wrecking machine Brock Lesnar will compete in a real fight – one with no script and an opponent intent on knocking his block off.
The 38-year-old once-in-a-generation athlete has spent the past four years as a special attraction in the WWE.
Compared to a modern day version of larger-than-life wrestler Andre The Giant, who made sporadic appearances on every corner of the globe, always leaving before wearing out his welcome, Lesnar only punches his ticket and goes to work a few times a year.
It’s a cushy deal, and one that nets the champion athlete a big salary, but it seems it doesn’t satisfy his competitive drive.
Mixed martial arts is a sport that Lesnar once lorded over as the biggest and baddest champion on the roster with a still-untouched track record for shattering box office numbers.
To hear the six-foot-three, 130-kilo fighter tell the story, a crippling battle with an intestinal disorder known as diverticulitis beat him in the UFC, not the two gigantic heavyweight hitters who knocked him out in his final two Octagon appearances.
In all likelihood, this is as a classic case of an athlete telling themselves what they need to hear to sleep at night, but Lesnar clearly believes otherwise.
WWE, the cream-of-the-crop pro wrestling promotion who have Lesnar locked up in a contract until 2018, claim that the former prize fighter’s Octagon excursion will be a “one-off”, but the big man is spinning a different tale in the press this week.
“I believe I was meant to be a fighter, an entertainer and absolutely it’s one of those things for me, I want to get back in,” Lesnar told Fox Sports. “It’s no mystery that I was forced out of this competition because of an illness I had. I tried to be the competitor I wanted to be, but it’s kind of hard to do when you have a disease and you fight back from it.”
“I’m in a whole different spot mentally and physically in my life right now. Before I became a 40-year-old man, I want to get back in the cage.”
On Sunday, Lesnar fights Australian knockout artist Mark Hunt in the co-main event of UFC 200, a pay-per-view projected to be one of the biggest of all-time.
Most industry insiders are writing off Lesnar, and I get why. He hasn’t won a fight since 2010, by all accounts his training sessions have been few and far between since returning to the WWE, and he is fighting a stylistic nightmare in Hunt – a solid takedown defender who hits like a truck.
If the ‘Super Samoan’ wins – especially if he punches the wrestler’s lights out like most predict – Lesnar will likely go back to the WWE with his tail between his legs.
Hunt is the rightful favourite with the bookies and is the more likely winner in the UFC 200 co-main event, but don’t kid yourselves here – if Lesnar finds an opening for a takedown he will try to drill Hunt through the canvas.
Interestingly enough, a win for Lesnar would create a new set of problems in this strange bedfellows arrangement between WWE and UFC.
WWE wants their star attraction back for the Summerslam event on August 22 and presumably plans to book the dual-sport star in several matches and television appearances before the close of the 2016 season.
I find it hard to believe Lesnar, on the other hand, would be content to go back to play fighting with John Cena and friends if he dummies the eighth-ranked heavyweight in the world, though.
As astonishing as it sounds to say out loud, a win over Hunt, a former K-1 world champion who has previously fought for UFC gold, injects Lesnar back into the title mix.
Lesnar beating the murderer’s row of top contenders like Fabricio Werdum and Cain Velasquez to get to a title fight seems almost implausible in 2016, but you have to believe the UFC would jump at the opportunity to book Lesnar in a title fight again if the opportunity presents itself.
Just take a look at the pay-per-view numbers Lesnar can pull and the rapid nosedive since his departure from the promotion’s heavyweight title picture.
Heavyweight championship fights during the Lesnar era (excluding interim title fights):
UFC 91: Couture vs. Lesnar – 1.1 million buys
UFC 100: Lesnar vs. Mir – 1.6 million buys
UFC 116: Lesnar vs. Carwin – 1.16 million buys
UFC 121: Lesnar vs. Velasquez – 1.05 million buysHeavyweight championship fights since Lesnar’s defeat (excluding interim title fights):
UFC 146: Dos Santos vs. Mir – 560,000 buys
UFC 155: Dos Santos vs. Velasquez 2 – 590,000 buys
UFC 160: Velasquez vs. ‘Bigfoot’ 2 – 380,000 buys
UFC 166: Velasquez vs. Dos Santos 2 – 330,000 buys
UFC 188: Velasquez vs. Werdum – 300,000 buys
UFC 198 Werdum vs. Miocic – TBA
There’s simply no denying that Lesnar’s name on the marquee sells, but could WWE and UFC – two companies with no credible track record of sharing their favourite toys in the toy box – both promote Lesnar in real and fake fights simultaneously? I wouldn’t count on it.
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