Brocktober Strikes Again!!!!!
http://www.mmafighting.com/2012/10/24/3549680/white-shuts-the-door-on-lesnar-vs-fedor-says-both-are-retiredDana White: Brock Lesnar Is 'Never Coming Back' to UFC
For the last several years, there has always been this one elusive
fight that, had it happened at the right time, probably would have been
the biggest money fight in the history of the sport - Brock Lesnar vs.
Fedor Emelianenko.
From late 2008 until the summer of 2010, when Emelianenko was still
considered the best heavyweight outside the UFC, and when Lesnar was
still UFC champion, it was the sport's ultimate battle, perhaps not of
skill, but of larger-than-life personas. White had tried several times
to put the fight together, including a secret meeting on a mysterious
islands, but he could never bring Emelianenko to the table because of
the demands on Emelianenko's side.
In an interview on the
Dave and Mahoney show on CBS radio in Las Vegas on Wednesday, White, who hinted he was still open to the
idea fairly recently, closed the book on the fight, saying both are
retired, and that Lesnar isn't coming back.
"He's done," White said regarding Lesnar, who is currently working on
a very limited schedule as a pro wrestler with World Wrestling
Entertainment. "He called me a couple of days ago. He's never coming
back. His body can't take it. He said he can wrestle, but he can't
fight. He was contemplating coming back."
Lesnar showed up at UFC 146 on May 26 in Las Vegas out of the blue,
and had a meeting with White and Lorenzo Fertitta after the show. White
seemed hopeful before the meeting that Lesnar, who drew some of the
biggest pay-per-view numbers in company history, may come back. But
after the meeting, White said that things couldn't have gone worse.
But White said that in conversations since that time, Lesnar appeared
at least open to the idea of coming back. His pro wrestling contract
expires in April with the WrestleMania show at Met Life Stadium in East
Rutherford, N.J.,, but given his success as a drawing card thus far in
that world, it is expected he'll get a major offer to continue.
White was asked whether those talks included a fight with
Emelianenko, who had announced his retirement after his early
first-round stoppage over Pedro Rizzo on June 21 in St. Petersburg,
Russia.
"Could be," he said.
But said it's now a dead deal as far as Emelianenko, the biggest MMA star to never come to the UFC.
"They're both retired," he said.
Lesnar, 35, had a near fatal bout with Diverticulitis in late 2009.
He came back in 2010 for two fights, beating Shane Carwin but losing his
heavyweight title to Cain Velasquez. He took a beating in both fights
which led to questions as to whether he was the same athlete he was
prior to the illness. He had other flare-ups with the disease,
including one in 2011 that led to cancelling his challenge to Junior Dos
Santos before Dos Santos had won the heavyweight title. After surgery,
he came back for one last fight, and looked uninspired in a first round
los to Alistair Overeem. As soon as the fight was over, he announced
his retirement.
He signed a lucrative one-year deal with World Wrestling
Entertainment in April, and has since headlined two pay-per-view events.
While not pulling the kind of numbers he did in UFC, both shows were
significantly up from what similar shows had done the past two years,
peaking with 350,000 buys worldwide for a show in August. The numbers
indicated some of his UFC drawing power was transferable to pro
wrestling.
Lesnar was an NCAA champion wrestler in 2000, who was signed shortly
after the tournament by WWE and spent almost four years with the
company. His career skyrocketed in 2002 when he was first introduced on
national television and was given the company's world championship in a
match with movie star Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. Lesnar quit in early
2004, citing he hated the grueling travel schedule that included nearly
200 matches a year, and wanted to return to competitive sports before he
got too old.
He first tried pro football, but he hadn't played the sport since
high school. His athletic ability was at the level of an NFL first
round draft choice,but he admitted being lost on the football field. He
was a late cut by the Minnesota Vikings, and turned down their request
to learn the game playing for NFL Europe.
In 2006, he signed a one-fight-deal with K-1, for an MMA fight in Los
Angeles. After winning, he signed with UFC where he debuted in 2008,
and won the heavyweight championship with a second round knockout of
Randy Couture in his third fight with the organization. He later
retained the title beating Frank Mir in the main event at UFC 100, the
most financially successful event in MMA history.
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