Brock Lesnar has never been a woulda, coulda, shoulda kind of guy. Whether in amateur wrestling, professional wrestling, a brief stint trying out for the NFL or in mixed martial arts, he’s always chased after what he wanted. And whether he got it and tore through it for all it was worth, or came up short and moved on, there was never time to think about the past.
Until now.
As the former UFC heavyweight champion gets ready for his return to the octagon to face Mark Hunt in the co-main event of UFC 200 on Saturday, he does refer back to his first run in MMA and wonders if there were things he could have done differently.
“The last couple fights, from (Shane) Carwin to (Cain) Velasquez to (Alistair) Overeem, aren’t very fond memories,” Lesnar said. “In my mind, it was just a struggle to be healthy and a struggle to be in the right mindset. I should have stepped away from the Octagon and let my body and my mind heal and become one again. But that fighter inside of you just doesn’t want to quit. And so for years, I pondered it and wondered.”
Wondered if those last two losses to Velasquez and Overeem could have gone a different way, if he wouldn’t have taken a five-minute thrashing from Carwin before scoring one of the great comebacks. They’re all valid reflections, especially since the toughest opponent Lesnar fought during his 2008-2011 time in the octagon didn’t have gloves on.
Those two bouts with diverticulitis floored Lesnar and left a lot of “What Ifs” when he left the sport after the loss to Overeem in December 2011, and most believed those questions would never get answered. At first, even Lesnar thought that chapter in his life had ended. Then he got healthy again.
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Thumbnail photo via Twitter/@UFC
