Brock Lesnar is the new WWE Universal Champion, but if his "advocate" Paul Heyman is to be believed, his MMA career may not be over.
“Brock is, in his heart, a trained competitor,” Heyman told the Fight Society podcast last week. “Now whether that means he’s going to look at this environment and say ‘You know what, I didn’t make the Vikings team in 2004 but I bet in 2017 I can and just because I can I’m going to just to show people that I want to and I take it’. Because when we named him the conqueror, that’s what he is. He’s a legit conqueror. You put a task before him and he conquers it."
Lesnar, a former UFC Champion, returned to the sport in 2016 after a layoff of over five years. Lesnar has since gone on to great success in his latest WWE run, incorporating aspects of his MMA career into his pro wrestling. Heyman also joked that Lesnar could play for the Minnesota Twins.
“I really can’t tell you that it’s out of the realm of possibility of Brock Lesnar to say ‘I’m taking a few months off from WWE, I want to see how many home runs I can hit for the Minnesota Twins.’ People may laugh at that, but it’s the same people that laughed at him in 2004 when he went for the Vikings camp and he was the last person cut and that’s with a broken jaw, a fractured pelvis and diverticulitis. I think what’s next for Brock Lesnar besides what’s happening in WWE. Could it be UFC? Could it be another sport? I think it’s something he’s going to look at and say ‘I bet no one thinks I can do that, all right I’m going to conquer that’," said Heyman.
Lesnar is in a particularly good situation. His WWE deal expires after WrestleMania 34, and they have shown a willingness in the past to allow him to compete in MMA fights in the contract. Before failing a series of drug tests, he won a unanimous decision over Mark Hunt at UFC 200. The fight was later overturned to a no-contest.
New UFC owners WME-IMG have been met with mixed reception since buying the company last year. Lesser known, but stellar fighters such as Ryan Bader, Lorenz Larkin, Michael McDonald, Kyoji Horiguchi and others have been granted their releases or not re-signed, as the company instead opts for big-name fighters. Lesnar certainly fits that description, something that would also catch the eye of top competitor and Viacom owned Bellator MMA. Bellator has signed the likes of Fedor Emelianenko, among others, to draw eyeballs to their show. Even at the age of 40, Lesnar would be a hot commodity in MMA.
Heyman continued, giving a glimpse at the mindset of a Brock Lesnar.
“It’s not just looking at UFC and he’ll say ‘At my worst, beating me cost Cain Velasquez 14 months of his career. When I was not 100 percent healthy, I beat the greatest heavyweight of all time, Randy Couture. When I came in for UFC 100, I was fighting a guy who had a psychological advantage because he tapped me out and is a former UFC heavyweight champion in Frank Mir and I pummeled him.’ At the same time, Brock could look at that and say ‘I want that again.’ He may do race car driving. You never know with him because something is going to trigger that. He’s going to be sitting there one day and someone is going to say can you imagine how hard that is to do? And he’ll look over and say, ‘Not for me’,” said Heyman.
