It’s an exciting time to be a UFC fan. As much as SLTD Wrestling loves its rassling, there’s nothing quite like watching legitimate fighters collide in epic confrontations inside the Octagon. The knockouts, the grappling struggles and all of the drama involved can give a fan an experience like no other. In a lot of instances, the non-predetermined UFC fights tell a much better story than the predetermined WWE programming. UFC 200 will also have plenty of stories to tell too. For wrestling fans however, the biggest area of interest is with Brock Lesnar’s heavyweight bout with Mark Hunt.
When Brock steps into the Octagon on July 9th 2016, he will be fighting in MMA for the first time in nearly five years. It’s a monumental moment for WWE and UFC, as UFC have landed quite the coup in getting Brock involved in probably their biggest UFC event to date. The mouth-watering prospect of three world title fights would have drew a great deal for UFC on its own, but Brock is the added cherry on top. Brock will bring you more mainstream media attention as well as a proven track record for WWE Network subscriptions and UFC PPV numbers. He’s one of the biggest UFC draws of all time and he’s still as big of a mainstream star as he was when he left UFC in December 2011.
On UFC’s end, this is a great result for them whether Brock wins or not. For WWE, it’s a huge risk. Vince McMahon has been known as a promoter that takes “calculated risks” but this is not one of those risks to me. This is not something that Vince can control. It’s not like he can book Brock to win or having him look very strong coming out of the fight. One of two things are going to happen – Brock wins or he loses… unless there’s some kind of draw or no contest I guess!
The point is, this is the sort of risk that puts WWE in no man’s land. WWE announced on RAW that Brock Lesnar would be at Summerslam next month but it’s not like the fight with Hunt will be something that he can easily shake off. Even if he wins, he could still suffer an injury of some kind. Sending a wounded beast into battle for Summerslam would not be ideal for WWE. If he loses, it might not just be physical punishment that could get to Brock. If Ronda Rousey’s big loss to Holly Holm last year has shown us anything, is that any loss can have an emotional effect on a fighter.
True, Brock did lose his first ever UFC fight to Frank Mir and ended up having a great UFC career anyway. However, Brock could be feeling that this is a fight he needs to win in order to prove that he could still fight at the highest level. Brock could have easily been given an easier opponent, but he was given or chose Mark Hunt. Mark Hunt will not exactly be a walk in the park for Lesnar, with some MMA experts predicting that Hunt will be too much for Lesnar. Lesnar clearly still wants to fight the very best.
The thing is though that Brock will unlikely come out of UFC completely unscathed, unless he somehow manages to knock out Hunt in thirteen seconds. This may result in the chances of a 100% Brock Lesnar appearing at Summerslam dropping significantly. With that, WWE would lose a huge draw for their second-biggest pay-per-view of the year if Brock is injured. Unless they’ve got one hell of a back-up plan, their PPV numbers could be seriously hit if Brock isn’t there.
Another issue for WWE would be Brock’s image following the fight. If one of WWE’s top guys in Brock Lesnar loses to one of UFC’s top guys in Mark Hunt, WWE would look inferior to UFC. If this was any other WWE wreslter that was going to fight in the UFC, it wouldn’t have been too big of a deal. However, WWE has pushed Brock Lesnar to being a one-of-a-kind special attraction ever since he returned. He was the one man in all of WWE in the last 25 years that had defeated the Undertaker at WrestleMania. He has destroyed WWE’s biggest stars in what were essential squash matches. He destroyed John Cena, he destroyed Roman Reigns and he beat Dean Ambrose (who is currently the WWE Champion) at WrestleMania. If Brock beat all of those guys only to lose to Mark Hunt, WWE would come off looking ridiculously inferior. No offense to Mark Hunt, but this is not like a former UFC Heavyweight Champion or one of UFC’s top draws. He’s a top heavyweight, but this is not a huge superfight like Floyd Mayweather vs Conor McGregor. This is WWE’s top guy against ONE of UFC’s top guys. If Brock fought UFC Heavyweight Champion Stipe Miocic and got beat, at least Brock got beat by the best heavyweight in the world. If Brock loses to Hunt, WWE having to push Brock as an unbeatable monster again is going to take some very hard work.
Of course if Brock wins, the promotion of him as an unbeatable monster becomes a lot more easier. Paul Heyman would have a grand old time in cutting promos about how Brock beat a top UFC guy in one of UFC’s biggest events of the year. Brock becomes a much bigger attraction whenever he shows up in WWE. Whatever show he’ll be on after the big draft on July 19th, he’ll provide huge surges in viewership for his show. If Brock wins, he’s WWE’s Conor McGregor. He’s WWE’s Floyd Mayweather. He’s WWE’s Tiger Woods. He’s WWE’s Lionel Messi. He’ll once again solidify his position as a true megastar in sports and entertainment. That’s a BIG if and it really comes down to how the fight goes in Las Vegas.
I think one thing we can all agree on is that it would provide some serious entertainment to be in the room when Vince McMahon is watching this fight on July 9th.
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