Can we safely write Brock Lesnar off from an MMA return at this point?
Sean Covington, Columnist – Covington’s Corner
Yes, it’s a shame Brock had to deal with diverticulitis in the first run of his career because it really cut things short. Brock makes more wrestling and he wrestles about as often as he fights. Brock ain’t getting any younger and if UFC won’t pay him, what’s the point? WWE treats Brock the way he wants to be treated and he moves the needle when it comes to ratings so stick with what got you to where you are is what I say.
Frank Hyden, Columnist – The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Yeah, I don’t think he’s coming back. He wants more money than they’re willing to give, they think he’s not worth the asking price. Unless one of the sides changes, I don’t see it happening. And why would either side change their mind? Brock knows that at this stage, he would most likely lose against all the big name guys in the division. So if he’s going to lose, he better be making a lot of money. The UFC knows he would probably lose, so why pay out a lot of money for that? They’ve done it before, bringing in guys who have no business being in the spot they’re at, but they probably weren’t paying a lot of money for them.
Lesnar could go to Bellator but they’d also have to be willing to pay him a lot of money to do that and I don’t think they will. I think Brock Lesnar is actually retired from MMA at this point.
Patrick Shaheen, Host – MMA Scope Podcast
Go ahead and have porky come on screen and give the old “that’s all folks”. Brock demands a lot, and it is fair for him to do so. But it is also fair for the UFC to pass on Brock. The organization doesn’t need Brock as they once did. Also, hate to be this guy but does Brock really get past USADA?
Michael Hiscoe, MMATorch Managing Editor
I’d like to be able to say the Brock Lesnar-UFC saga is over, but I don’t think it’s that simple. As long as Brock is working and still looks like what people expect Brock Lensar to look like, he’s going to play WWE and UFC off of each other. If Lesnar pulls himself out of the USADA testing pool, then I’ll take this retirement a little more seriously, but I think we’re going to go through this cycle at least one more time.
NEXT: ONE CHAMPIONSHIP FOR HONOR REPORT – YUSHIN OKAMI’S ONE DEBUT
One thing we have learned from this is that UFC’s new pay-per-view deal with ESPN has changed the economics of how UFC pays their top draws and how many buys UFC needs a show to do in order to make a similar amount of money compared to the previous PPV era. It sounds like Dana White and UFC weren’t willing to pay Brock what he wanted. UFC is getting guaranteed money from PPVs now, so they will make more off of the lower level shows (which are the vast majority), but that also means that they don’t stand to make as much off of the top tier shows. It will be interesting to see how this plays out with Conor McGregor.
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