Back in 2018, Brock Lesnar entered the cage at UFC 226 to challenge Daniel Cormier to a heavyweight title match. The two traded verbal barbs, they shoved one another, they nearly got into a brawl. And then … the actual fight never happened.
Lesnar would sign a new deal with WWE and never compete in MMA again. Cormier would fight three more times before retiring, going 1-2 with two straight title fight losses to Stipe Miocic. As one of the first double champs in UFC history, Cormier’s place in MMA history is secure. But he still regrets not getting to fight Brock Lesnar.
In a recent interview on Club Shay Shay, “DC” explained what happened to the Lesnar fight.
“The WWE got him. The WWE took him back,” Cormier said. “It was that was my golden goose, man. We had that moment in the ring. I pushed him. He pushed me. WWE paid him [to go] back. They they were paying Brock like six to seven million a year. Maybe ten. ‘Brock, you can go fight DC and lose, or you can come [back to WWE].’”
When host Shannon Sharpe questioned whether he would have beaten Lesnar, Cormier rolled his eyes.
“Shay, I was beating Brock Lesnar,” he insisted. “It was one of the safest fights I could have had. That’s the truth. It’s just the truth.”
“I like Brock too. He’s a great guy. But I watched what Cain [Velasquez] did to him. I watched how he would react to getting punched. And I was gonna punch him. He would have to take me down to win the fight, and I can wrestle. If he shoots on me, I’mma make it so hard for him to get that takedown that by the time he gets it, he’s exhausted. Now I’m up to my feet, then you’re done.”
“With Cain, he took Cain down,” Cormier continued. “Cain got up, started kneeing him in his face. I saw Brock recently. He still has that scar in his eye from when Cain kneed him in the face. Yep. Still got that big scar in his eye.”
Cain Velasquez finished Lesnar in one round, as did Alistair Overeem when they fought a year later. The general consensus after those losses: Lesnar was a powerful bully but wilted when hit back. He’d disappear from the sport for five years before coming back and beating Mark Hunt via a cautious wrestling-heavy decision in 2016.
That win was changed to a No Contest after Lesnar tested positive for steroids, and that’s how the WWE wrestler turned UFC heavyweight champion’s career in the cage ended. There was a lot of speculation that Lesnar used his 2018 flirtation with UFC to extract more money out of WWE. While that may be true, Cormier believed Brock would have stepped in the cage again if the UFC’s offer was better.
