Brock Lesnar on his career: 'I'm one in a million'
Brock Lesnar is coming back to fight at UFC 200 after a nearly five year hiatus from the sport, but the former heavyweight champion says that he still has nothing to prove in his bout with Mark Hunt.
When Lesnar retired from the sport back in 2011 it followed two straight losses to Cain Velasquez and Alistair Overeem with those fights coming at the end of his long battle against diverticulitis, which stole at least two years of his MMA career.
Now as he stands on the precipice of returning in just a few short weeks, Lesnar told his close friend and business partner Paul Heyman in a new interview that he's not out to prove anything to anybody by coming back at this stage of the game.
He's only got something to prove to himself.
"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."
Lesnar has a point when it comes to his accomplishments both inside and outside the UFC.
He's a former NCAA heavyweight wrestling champion, who then became one of the biggest stars in the WWE before trying out for the NFL's Minnesota Vikings at one point with no previous football experience.
Eventually, Lesnar came to the UFC where he became heavyweight champion in only his third fight and once he retired in 2011, he returned to WWE where he remains one of the company's biggest stars once again.
So coming back to the UFC one more time might seem like a bucket list item for Lesnar as he draws closer to 40, but he says this bout with Hunt is all about a personal desire that resides deep down inside of him and he needs to satiate that thirst to fight again.
"I'm not here to compare myself to anybody else. I'm not here to prove anything," Lesnar said. "If there's anything for me out of this, somewhere deep down in my soul do I want to extinguish some bad feelings or the last two times I had in the Octagon that weren't in my favor? As an athlete, I think everybody goes through that but unfortunately for me, I really feel like I got beat by diverticulitis.
"My No. 1 objective is to get in there and prove to myself. I'm not proving it to anybody else."
Lesnar also makes it clear that while he appreciates all of the support he gets from fans and the interest in his return to the Octagon, none of this is about them either.
Of course, Lesnar has famously proclaimed himself a "prize fighter" numerous times and he's not doing this for free, but ultimately this is a personal quest he's on to prove that he's still one of the baddest men on the planet.
"I'm not doing this for fans," Lesnar said bluntly. "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 it for me.
"This is for me."
