Brock Lesnar is coming back to the UFC with one person in mind: Brock Lesnar.
The former UFC heavyweight champion and current WWE phenomenon told Paul Heyman, his on-air WWE advocate and longtime friend, that he doesn't believe he has anything to prove to anyone. Except for maybe himself.
"I'm not proving it to anybody else," Lesnar said in the sitdown interview. "I'm not doing this for fans. If there are fans that are excited that I'm getting back in the Octagon, great. But I'm not doing it for them. I'm doing this for me. This is for me. If by chance, 2 million people want to tune in for me to enjoy myself on July 9, so be it. That's great. That'd be really good and I appreciate that, but I'm not gonna change. This is all about me. I'm sorry. This is all about me. And why should it be about anybody else?"
Lesnar will face Mark Hunt in the co-main event of UFC 200 on July 9 in Las Vegas. He has not fought in the UFC since 2011, a loss to Alistair Overeem via first-round TKO. Lesnar, 38, has maintained that the real cause of his last two losses and retirement was diverticulitis and he was not at full strength at the end of his first run.
"Do I feel better than I ever felt before?" Lesnar said. "I can't say that. ... I know what feeling like sh*t feels like. I don't feel that way."
In a short time, Lesnar won the UFC heavyweight title from Randy Couture and became the biggest pay-per-view draw in UFC history. When he retired in 2011, he returned to WWE, where he had made his name previously.
UFC 200 could just be a one-off in the Octagon for Lesnar. WWE said in a statement that Lesnar will return to their company for the SummerSlam event in August.
That doesn't make Lesnar any less motivated against Hunt. He said he is "very excited" to get back to fighting. There is the feeling that diverticulitis upended his MMA career and he wants to rid himself of that. Because, once again, this comeback is about him. Not about showing everyone else what he could have done had he been healthy back then.
"I don't think I have anything to prove at all," Lesnar said. "I've been an athlete. I've accomplished a lot of great things. A lot of great things. I feel very fortunate that I'm 38 years old, I work for the WWE and I can step foot back into the Octagon again for the UFC. How many people can do that? I'm one in a million. How many people can pull it off? One in a million. And you're looking at him."
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