After dominating the wrestling ring, Brock Lesnar turned his attention to the world of mixed martial arts in the 2000s, but recently revealed Dana White originally wanted nothing to do with him in the UFC.
During a recent episode of the Spittin’ Chiclets podcast, Lesnar opened up about his time in UFC. The legend famously departed the world of professional wrestling in 2007, and subsequently began competing in MMA that same year. In 2008, he started his UFC career, but noted that White originally didn’t want him involved with UFC.
“Dana White wanted nothing to do with me,” Lesnar revealed. “No, no. He wouldn’t return my phone calls. Yeah, so, what happened was, I fought at the LA Colosseum for K-1 Dynamite, and then I wanted to get into the big leagues. And there was only one big league at the time, and it was the UFC. So, my team reached out and wanted to do something with the UFC.”
Lesnar revealed that, in order to get White’s attention, he had to literally go and approach him at a random event.
“This is the stuff you have to do. I bought four nosebleed tickets to the MGM. Randy Couture was headlining against Gabriel Gonzaga for the heavyweight championship. I sat there in the stands through the entire event, and as soon as Randy won that fight, I scaled the security and ran to the octagon and grabbed Dana. I introduced myself. I said, ‘I’m Brock Lesnar.’ And we went to the back, and he says, ‘Well, listen, I’ll give you a shot.’
“So he gave me a one-fight deal. I said take a gamble on me, and so he gave me a one-shot deal, and I lost that fight against Frank Mir. I went back to the locker room, and I was like I screwed it up. And Dana comes in, and he’s like, because they know the pay-per-view buys instantly, right? So, the numbers must have been really, really good. At that point, Dana is like, ‘Nope, you’re not done.’ And then the next day, we negotiated a real contract.”
According to Lesnar, he believes White wanted nothing to do with him due to him having “no credibility” at the time as a fighter, saying he was just “an amateur wrestler and a fake entertainer.” Lesnar held his held in the Octagon, though, accruing a 5-3-1 record in the world of MMA, and held UFC’s Heavyweight Championship once before returning to wrestling in 2012.
READ MORE: Brock Lesnar Teases How Long His Current WWE Run Will Last
