Former UFC heavyweight champion, Brock Lesnar has revealed a rather surprising request he made to promotional president, Dana White ahead of his organizational bow – which included the shipping of a full-sized Octagon for him to prepare in.
Lesnar, who ended his professional mixed martial arts career boasting a 5-3(1) record, most recently featured in a main card bout against fellow promotional alum, Mark Hunt at UFC 200 in July 2016.
The former undisputed champion has initially secured a rather one-sided unanimous decision win over Hunt, until the bout was eventually overturned to an official ‘No Contest’ after Lesnar failed a post-fight drug test administered by anti-doping agency USADA after testing positive for the banned substance, clomiphene in an in-competition drug test sample. Lesnar was fined a sum of $250,00 for his infringement, and issued a one-year retroactive suspension from active competition.
Brock Lesnar has competed nine times professionally in mixed martial arts, scoring a 5-3(1) record
Despite a return to Vince McMahon’s professional wrestling outfit, WWE, Lesnar was linked, albeit briefly to an Octagon return to challenge then-heavyweight champion, former two-weight titleholder, Daniel Cormier in a title bout in 2018.
In the time since, the bout failed to ever materialize, however, Lesnar has continually been linked to a clash against former two-time light heavyweight champion, Jon Jones, who called out the former heavyweight champion, as well as a potential Bellator MMA signing to meet with sport icon, Fedor Emelianenko.
Competing for the UFC in all but one of his nine professional mixed martial arts walks, Lesnar, who recently competed at the WWE’s flagship event, Royal Rumble, claimed he had ordered the UFC to send him an Octagon to train in to prepare of his UFC debut, as well as claiming that a person would have to be “batsh*t crazy” to compete in MMA.
“It’s a different game, you know, entering the Octagon,” Brock Lesnar said on The Pat McAfee Show. “And I’m telling you, you’ve got to be – like, you’ve got to be half batsh*t crazy. Like when you go through the door – like, I built or ordered an Octagon so I could, didn’t have to at first – like, jitters of getting in an Octagon.”
I’m like, ‘Dana (White), I want an Octagon,’” Brock Lesnar continued. “And like, ah boom, (the UFC) shipped an Octagon. So I can fight in it and practice in it, you know? But then you’re in front of 20,000 people and they shut the door and it’s like, ‘Ahhh’.” (Transcribed by WrestlingInc.com)
A former undisputed heavyweight champion with the UFC, Brock Lesnar managed to clinch the title with a 2008 knockout win over Randy Couture, before defending the title against two-time foe, Frank Mir, and then unifying the titles against Shane Carwin.
Dropping the championship in 2010, Lesnar suffered a first round ground strikes loss to Cain Velasquez, before suffering a first round knockout loss to Alistair Overeem in December of the following year.