Source: Eugene Gologursky / Getty
WWE’s Brock Lesner announced on Monday that he will be on the fight card for UFC 200 against Mark Hunt on July 9 in Las Vegas.
This is the first fight since Lesnar left the Octagon in December 2011 since his loss against Alistair Overeem.
In Oct. 2010, loss against Cain Velaquez, another contender on the UFC 200 fight card in July too.
It’s been a year since Brock announced that he was “closing the door” on the MMA career, but then he said that, “I’m a crossover athlete. I’m the modern-day Bo Jackson, people.”
He always said that he was never comfortable with closing that door on MMA too… He said, “It was the hardest decision for me to make.” Lesnar told Hannah Storm today. He continued with, “That decision has haunted me for the last 15 months. I figured I couldn’t live like that for the rest of my life. I’m a big believer in living out your dream and facing your fears.”
WWE still holds Brock under contract, but he got the approval from the big guys in WWE to perform in UFC 200 with a “granted a one-off opportunity.”
Lesnar will also be appearing for WWE’s SummerSlam on August 21 at the Barclay’s Center in Brooklyn, NY.
Lesnar’s MMA record is 5-3 and Mark Hunt holds a 12-10-1 record, Hunt who’s last fight was against Frank Mir where he had a first-round KNOCKOUT against Mir.
Brock said, “I’ve never turned down a fight in the UFC. Even when I was champ, I never turned down a fight. When I was fighting to be a champ, I never turned down a fight. If [UFC president] Dana White called me and said, ‘You have opponent X,Y, or Z, which do you want?’– he never gave me those options.”
He also said, “I’m a grappler at heart. [Hunt] is a heavy hitter. I think that’s what the people want to see. The UFC ultimately culminated because we’re going to put guys with opposing disciplines against each other. I think I match up very well. If Mark ends up on the ground, the fight is over.”
Hannah asked why Dana White was bringing Brock back and he simply said, “big business.”
He continued with, “I’m a prize fighter. Titles don’t pay bills. I fight for money. I’m making money. They’re making money. Everybody’s making money. That’s what this is all about.”
In 2008, Lesnar won against Randy Couture with a knockout that won him the UFC championship. After that fight he won against Frank Mir and then Shane Carwin too… but it was unfortunate that after that, Lesnar missed a year of possible competitions due to his health.
Brock Lesnar battles with diverticulitis, an intestinal disorder.
“At the top of my career, I wasn’t at the to of my game. I felt like I was cheated out of my career in the UFC. In my mind and in my heart, I never lost to a foe. I never lost to an opponent. I lost to diverticulitis. That was my opponent that beat me. A lot of other people might have other thoughts about that.”
He said, “I’m sitting here today and I feel 1,000 percent.”
He joke said that he started training for the July 9 fight this past weekend…
And when referring to a fight after UFC 200, he said, “It may just be a tease, I don’t know the answer to that question right now. We’ll cross that road when we ge there. I’ve got a big [WWE] event after that event, SummerSlam.”
The UFC 200 fight card’s main fight is another fight between Daniel Cormier vs. Jon Jones, their first fight was UFC 187 in 2015.
Here are a few others not to miss:
Jose Aldo vs. Frankie Edgar
Miesha Tate vs. Amana Nunes
Cain Velasquez vs. Travis Browne
Via:espn.go
