Brock Lesnar holds a unique place in both MMA and pro wrestling, and when the finish line for his WWE contract came into sight earlier this year, a return to the UFC became a real possibility.
It began feeling like something of an inevitability, however, when Lesnar was spotted at UFC 184. Unfortunately, when he re-upped with the WWE just days before WrestleMania 31, many questioned whether he was ever truly serious about rebooting his MMA career.
Seven quiet months now separate him from one of the biggest decisions of his athletic career. With that in mind, the former UFC heavyweight champ opened up to “Stone Cold” Steve Austin in an interview on the WWE Network, and he wants to make one thing clear. He was serious about returning to the UFC.
“It wasn’t a bluff,” Lesnar said (h/t to FoxSports.com‘s Damon Martin for the transcription). “I felt robbed by diverticulitis. I felt robbed by being sick. I was feeling good and it took me a couple years to start feeling good.”
It’s not an unfamiliar discussion when it comes to Lesnar. Twice during his career in MMA, he missed significant time due to illness. That has made a full-strength Lesnar one of the greatest “what if” stories in MMA.
That this actually grates on Lesnar himself, however, is something that we haven’t heard before. The same goes for the fact that he was so convinced that he was going to leave the WWE following WrestleMania 31 that he actually began MMA training again.
“I started training camp. I wanted to test myself and see where I was—not more physical, but mentally,” he said. “I wanted to see the mental challenges that it was going to take. If your head’s not in the game, the last place you want to get into is in the Octagon.”
In the end, however, he opted to remain in professional wrestling when the WWE floated him a part-time offer with full-time pay. He has only wrestled a handful of times since WrestleMania 31 and makes sporadic appearances on the company’s weekly programming. Still, he remains one of the top attractions in pro wrestling today and is set to face The Undertaker in the main event of Hell in a Cell this Sunday.
According to Lesnar, though, there is a real possibility that, if not for his health struggles out of the cage, he could still be in the UFC today.
“It was really unfair for me,” he said. “To this day, I don’t know if I’d be a pro wrestler if I hadn’t gotten sick. I may not be here. I’d still be banging heads.”
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