When Brock Lesnar decided he was ready to try something new after becoming a superstar in WWE, he first attempted an NFL career before becoming a fighter and eventually a UFC heavyweight champion.
But the path there was anything but conventional.
As an NCAA Division I National Champion in wrestling, Lesnar had the foundation built for fighting but after college, making a living was his first priority and that led him to WWE. He was a champion and one of the company’s biggest draws but after inking a massive 10-year deal worth $20 million guaranteed, Lensar was just discontent with his career.
But deciding to cut ties with WWE cost him dearly.
“I got cut from the [Minnesota] Vikings and the IRS showed up at my doorstep,” Lesnar revealed on the Spittin’ Chiclets podcast. “I was in a custody battle for my daughter and I was getting sued by Vince McMahon for a non-compete. It was a tough time in my life from [2004 to 2006].”
Lesnar eventually traveled to Japan where he picked up work as a professional wrestler and it was there that a promoter from K-1 asked him about crossing over into MMA. He booked a fight when K-1 made the trip across the pond for a show in Los Angeles but winning there didn’t exactly make Lesnar the top prospect in the sport.
In fact, Lesnar says when he decided to stick with fighting, he knew that the UFC was the best possible landing spot but he couldn’t even get UFC CEO Dana White on the phone.
“Dana White wanted nothing to do with me,” Lesnar said. “He wouldn’t return my phone calls. What happened was I fought at the L.A. Coliseum for K-1 Dynamite and then I wanted to get into the big leagues and there’s only one big league at the time and it was the UFC. My team reached out and wanted to do something with the UFC. This is the stuff you have to do. I said screw it, I bought four nosebleed tickets to the MGM [Grand Garden Arena], Randy Couture was headlining against Gabriel Gonzaga for the heavyweight championship.
“I sat there in the stands through the entire event and as soon as Randy won that fight, I scaled the security and ran to the octagon, I grabbed Dana and I introduced myself — ‘I’m Brock Lesnar.’ We went to the back and he said ‘well listen, I’ll give you a shot.’ He gave me a one-fight deal. I said take a gamble on me.”
The one fight deal came with a major stipulation — White wasn’t giving Lesnar an opponent he should smash just because he was an established star from WWE. Instead, Lesnar got booked against former UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir and he ultimately suffered a submission loss just 90 seconds into the opening round.
He thought that performance probably doomed his chances with the UFC but White quickly changed his tune after that event.
“So he gave me a one-shot deal and I lost that fight against Frank Mir,” Lesnar said. “I went back to the locker room and I was like I screwed it up.
“Dana comes in, because they know the pay-per-view buys instantly, so the numbers must have been really, really good. At that point, Dana’s like ‘no, you’re not done’ and the next day we negotiated a real contract.”
While the UFC has definitely signed some fighters based on name value over actual skills, Lesnar understood why the promotion wasn’t interested in him at first.
“Because I had no credibility and I don’t blame him,” Lesnar said about his first interactions with White. “I was an amateur wrestler and a fake entertainer. He didn’t care. I fought a tomato can in my first fight, I beat him in 90 seconds and it’s whatever. I didn’t prove myself yet.
“He threw me to the wolves. He said ‘I’m not giving you easy fights.’ My first fight is against Frank, he’s I don’t know how many time defending champion at the time. A lethal dude. He almost broke my leg in half. He’s the real deal. It was one of those things where I had to prove myself to him.”
In his next fight, Lesnar steamrolled PRIDE veteran Heath Herring by decision and he then defeated Randy Couture to become UFC heavyweight champion.
“[Randy Couture] was on his way out,” Lesnar explained. “Dana was trying to get rid of Randy because they didn’t see eye-to-eye in the pay scale and all these other things. So I think Dana was really hoping that I was going to beat him. He was very ecstatic about it at the time.”
Lesnar went onto defend his title two times but in the middle of his reign, he was forced out of action for the better part of a year after being diagnosed with diverticulitis, which is an intestinal disorder that can cause severe pain among other ailments.
When he finally returned to action, Lesnar endured an early beatdown from Shane Carwin before storming back to score a submission win in the second round. It was a miraculous comeback but that effectively took the last little bit of fighting spirit out of Lesnar because he suffered knockout losses in his next two appearances before leaving UFC to return to WWE.
“Cain Velasquez, he handed me my ass in Anaheim,” Lesnar said about his second career loss. “But I think for me, going through diverticulitis really took a lot of fight out of me. I almost died with that disease and afterwards, it changed my life a little bit and changed my mentality towards the sport.
“You can get hurt at this pretty easily. It was one of those deals where early in my career, it was all or nothing. There was some fights left on my contract where I was like I’m not going to leave this money on the table so I’m going to go fight.”
Lesnar admits he did “quite well” financially fighting for the UFC and he did eventually return for one more fight — a win over Mark Hunt at UFC 200 that was later overturned to a no-contest due to a failed drug test. But that was the last time Lesnar fought in the UFC and he still marvels at what he was able to accomplish during that run.
“I look back now and I can’t believe I did it,” Lesnar said. “I want nothing to do with it 1774545404.”
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