Brock Lesnar’s Return: 2 Good 2 Bad

Brock Lesnar’s Return: 2 Good 2 Bad

By Kieran Cobley

Well, UFC 226 is in the books, and we got a WWE style closure to the show, with Daniel Cormier calling out ex-heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar, with the pair engaging in a shoving and verbal sparring match.

Not only this, but in the post fight press conference, UFC president Dana White confirmed that he wanted to make the DC-Lesnar fight, but is this good for the sport, here are two reasons for and against Brock’s return.

Good: Mega money

With the return of Brock Lesnar, the UFC have another big name fighter to sell fights, and no one sells fights quite like Lesnar.

The pro wrestler turned MMA star, turned pro wrestler again, is a big draw, and last fought in the main event of UFC 200, which had a buy rate of 1,009,000, which in simple terms, is a LOT of money, and if Dana White likes anything more than exciting fights, its money.

Not only this, if this fight is held in Brock’s hometown of Minnesota, at the Minnesota Viking’s new stadium, the UFC could break their attendance record, and better still, set a new world record for the highest attended MMA event.

So that’d be a combination of thousands of paying ticket holders in attendance, plus thousands upon thousands of fans buying the PPV to watch at home, that equals a lot of money

Bad: The rankings

Right, so for argument’s sake, lets say Brock’s return fight is for the Heavyweight title, why should he get a title shot.

His last three fights have been a no contest against Mark Hunt (where he was banned for doping, I’ll get into that later), and TKO losses to Alistair Overeem and Cain Velasquez.

In fact, Lesnar’s last win was in 2010 against Shane Carwin, that’s eight years ago, and to compound the matter, he only has a 5-3 record.

If Lesnar got a Heavyweight title shot on his return, it makes a mockery of the rankings, and you have to imagine guys like Curtis Blaydes and Derick Lewis, will be super angry that a guy who hasn’t won in eight years, and is having to serve a doping ban, gets a title shot before they do.

Bad: Lesnar’s doping ban

So Lesnar “won” his last fight at UFC 200 against Mark Hunt, but his win was quickly overturned as USADA announced that he had failed two drugs tests.

As a result, Lesnar had to serve a ban imposed by the Nevada State Athletic Commision, but announced his retirement for MMA, after receiving this ban.

This means that before he can creep back in the Octagon, Lesnar has to be in the USADA testing pool for six months, meaning his return fight would be right around the time that Daniel Cormier said he would like to retire, March 2019, meaning it would likely be DC’s retirement fight.

Not only this, but think about the message this sends to other fighters in the UFC, if your get caught doping, it’s OK, just step out from the sport for a while, and if your name is a big enough draw, you’ll be put right back into the title picture, it’s almost like rewarding athletes for cheating.

Good: Plenty of Build Time

With six months before Brock can even fight, the UFC has plenty of time to hype and market this fight, and their couldn’t be a fight that is easier to market than this one.

All the UFC have to do is take a page out of WWE’s book, and market this fight as good against bad.

Dana White just has to market DC as this massive underdog that never backs down from a fight, in possibly his last octagon outing, fighting against a huge mountain in Lesnar, who will be marketed as a complete and utter arsehole, by bringing up the having incident at 226, denouncing the whole Heavyweight division as “a piece of shit” and his return from a doping ban.

Such a simple story to tell in the build, with plenty of time to do it, that must be the UFC marketing team’s dream come true.

So what do you think about Brock Lesnar returning?

Please let me know what you think of the proposed Cormier-Lesnar fight.