The UFC was born from WWE. No matter how much UFC President Dana White wants to deny it, his company and the sport of mixed martial arts wouldn’t be nearly as popular if it weren’t for professional wrestling, the WWE, and its CEO Vince McMahon. One man that knows this better than anyone else is Brock Lesnar.
Lesnar spent a few years in WWE from 2002-2005 before trying his hand in the NFL, which didn’t end so well. He had a short stint in Japan wrestling for New Japan Pro Wrestling before joining UFC in 2008. He quickly rose to the top of the ranks and became UFC Heavyweight Champion after defeating legend Randy Couture at UFC 91 in November 2008.
Lesnar returned to the WWE in 2012 and just a few years later announced that he would be re-signing with the company. He announced his retirement from the sport of MMA after it was rumored he would be making a return to the company.
Prior to UFC 190, White, who is not shy about his feelings for WWE, shared a few controversial tweets that got a lot of wrestling fans and professional wrestlers fired up. One of those wrestlers was Lesnar.
According to Fox Sports, Lesnar appeared on Sportscenter on Tuesday and had a few words for White about those tweets. Lesnar made some good points about WWE being staged, which is no secret, but also saying that UFC and WWE are one in the same when it comes to promotion.
“Of course, Dana, it’s fake everybody knows that but you’re promoting the same thing we’re promoting. Dana White is promoting fights — we’re promoting fights. It just so happens that we get a little more longevity out of our fight and out of our fighters because of the circumstances.
“It is a staged arena. Everybody knows that. Dana, probably in his defense, is promoting fighting but it’s the same thing. He’s trying to sell pay-per-views, he’s trying to sell money fights. It’s the same racket.”
He then continued to say that even though the two companies promote themselves in the same way, McMahon is much better at it than White.
“The business model’s the same, it’s identical. I think Vince McMahon’s better at it than Dana and that might rub Dana the wrong way,” Lesnar stated. “Vince is the pioneer of it. He’s been doing this his whole life and he’s damn good at it.”
It looks like that if Lesnar and White’s relationship wasn’t strained before, it certainly is now. Lesnar is retired from MMA, so I don’t expect him to be leaving WWE any time soon.
What I get from Lesnar’s words is this: WWE – 1, UFC – 0. Your move, Dana. You better hope CM Punk pans out well for you.
Can’t get enough of Campus Sports? Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to stay updated with the latest news and exclusive giveaways!
*Featured Photo (above) credit to WWE
