Brock Lesnar expanded upon his UFC career beginnings, having had to effectively invade an event to get onto Dana White’s radar.
Lesnar is now known as a UFC Heavyweight Champion who unified the title twice with Interim Champion challengers, possessing a 5-3 (1 NC) record in MMA. But there was a time after his WWE departure and ill-fated Minnesota Vikings stint that the premier fighting promotion had no interest in him, as chronicled by Lesnar during “Spittin’ Chiclets.”
“Dana White wanted nothing to do with me. He wouldn’t return my phone calls,” Lesnar said. He explained that he had just fought at the LA Coliseum for K1, and felt he was ready to get into the “big leagues,” but there was no response when his team reached out. So he took matters into his own hands at UFC 74.
“So I said screw it, I bought four nosebleeds to the MGM. Randy Couture was headlining against Gabriel Gonzaga for the Heavyweight Championship. I sat there in the stands for the entire event and as soon as Randy won that fight, I scaled the security and ran to the Octagon, grabbed Dana and introduced myself.”
Lesnar explained that he and White then went backstage and it was agreed that he would be given a one-fight deal to prove himself. That fight would come against Frank Mir, and Lesnar would lose via a kneebar submission. But White was so impressed with his drawing power that they negotiated an extended deal to begin what became his UFC career.
Brock Lesnar understood why Dana White wasn’t interested
When asked why he thought White had no interest in bringing him to UFC despite his established fame, Lesnar reasoned that he had no legitimacy in the fight game.
“I had no credibility, and I don’t blame him. I was an amateur wrestler and a fake entertainer. So he didn’t care. I fought a tomato can in my first fight. I beat him in 90 seconds and I didn’t prove myself yet. So he threw me to the wolves. My first fight is against Frank… He almost broke my leg in half… So it was just one of those things where I had to prove myself to him.”
When all was said and done, Lesnar said he did “quite well” financially as a result of the deal, even if he didn’t know the specifics of his pay scale compared to money drawn. He was also asked what he found to be his fondest accolade: the NCAA National Wrestling Championship or UFC Heavyweight Championship.
“I think my most prestigious award for me is my National Championship in college,” he said. “Because to be that young kid and to be raw, and to carry that dream and to finally win at a discipline you’ve been trying to master for 17 years. That’s probably my biggest accolade I can hang my hat on.”
Lesnar admitted that Randy Couture was aging when he dethroned him for the UFC title. “He was on his way out. 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 I was going to beat him, and he was very ecstatic about it at the time.”
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