Opinion: Brock Lesnar, What If?

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Editor’s note: The views and opinions expressed below are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Sherdog.com, its affiliates and sponsors or its parent company, Evolve Media.

Brock Lesnar recently revealed on the “Stone Cold” Steve Austin podcast that he had seriously considered a return to the Ultimate Fighting Championship after his World Wrestling Entertainment contract had expired earlier this year and actually started an MMA training camp before ultimately deciding he would remain with the WWE.

The news raised a few eyebrows, especially for those who thought Lesnar was simply posturing for money and had never really considered a comeback to the Octagon. Judging by his demeanor on the podcast, which comes off about as straightforward as one can be, the consideration he gave was serious as a heart attack. Something else Lesnar said to Austin on the WWE-produced podcast also stuck out.

“To this day, I don’t know if I’d be a pro wrestler if I hadn’t gotten sick,” Lesnar said while also suggesting that diverticulitis “robbed” him of his prime MMA years. “I may not be here. I’d still be banging heads.”

Lesnar has always come off as the kind of guy who makes the best possible business decision; he realized that working a part-time schedule for full-time compensation was in his best interest at the age of 38. It wasn’t just that, though. It was the fact that diverticulitis was the primary culprit in cutting Lesnar’s MMA career short and pushing him back into a WWE ring. He admits it was never, ever about having a love for sports entertainment. It’s no secret that Lesnar wasn’t exactly enamored with what comes with being a professional wrestler and grew weary of it in just two short years. The only reason he’s back now is because it provides him with the best position of financial stability with limited risk.

With that considered, if Lesnar had never fallen ill, chances are he would have never returned to the kingdom the McMahons built and may still be competing in the UFC. What if diverticulitis never ravaged his insides and he was able to continue his career as a heavyweight? What if?

It’s quite difficult to gauge just how much of Lesnar’s decline can be attributed to diverticulitis versus whether or not the talent of the heavyweight division simply caught up with him.

When Lesnar made his Ultimate Fighting Championship debut and eventually trucked Frank Mir in their rematch to retain the UFC heavyweight title he won from an undersized Randy Couture, the landscape of the heavyweight division lacked formidable opponents. All Lesnar really needed was to maintain his size and strength because his freakish ability was enough to get him over. Undersized opponents would be overwhelmed, and anybody who was close to his size lacked in ability. Lesnar admitted it was all about timing and that the talent in the division was rather thin. However, by the time 2010 rolled around, new blood had entered and made the division more competitive. Lesnar could no longer simply rely on his natural ability.

Lesnar’s athletic gifts aside, there were glaring holes in his game that might never have improved. For one, Lesnar never really polished up his standup. Sure, he was strong as a bull and fast as a gazelle, but he was always awkward with his boxing. More importantly, he didn’t really enjoy being hit in the face. People point to Lesnar’s TKO losses to Alistair Overeem and Cain Velasquez as examples. However, the trouble really began against Shane Carwin at UFC 116 back in 2010. Even though Lesnar put on a courageous performance en route to an impressive second-round submission via arm-triangle choke, it was evident that he didn’t react well to being hit in the face; and it’s really difficult to change that.

There is a train of thought that suggests that diverticulitis -- which Lesnar suffered from before the Carwin fight and again during filming for Season 13 of “The Ultimate Fighter -- severely stunted his evolution as a mixed martial artist. Furthermore, Lesnar was operating at less than 100 percent against Carwin, Overeem and Velasquez. Perhaps a routine training camp could have plugged those holes in his game. After all, Lesnar has been known to grasp things rather quickly and has a far more accelerated learning curve than your average athlete.

Would he still be champion? It’s hard to see into the crystal ball given the amount of variables that come into play, but it’s very possible that Lesnar would have been the UFC heavyweight champion at some point over the last five years. However, I do believe Lesnar would have dropped the title to Velasquez or Junior dos Santos, no matter the scenario. Even with the steep learning curve, facing a cardio machine like Velasquez in a rematch would have likely dragged him into a five-round fight for the first time. The furthest Lesnar had ever gone was three rounds in a dominant performance against Heath Herring in 2008. I’m not quite sure Lesnar could have lasted with someone as fast and persistent as Velasquez.

Dos Santos is a different story altogether. The crisp standup coupled with a stellar takedown defense would likely have seen Lesnar get beaten up over the course of five rounds with the Brazilian. Given the fact that Lesnar was pretty much learning on the job, he would have received a harsh lesson in boxing from JDS.

Even so, the one thing I anticipate is that Lesnar would have gotten better after those losses and eventually gotten his hands back on the world title. He’s simply too gifted as an athlete to be bogged down by any individual. The only thing that cast doubt in his mind is the intestinal disorder that nearly took his life. In Lesnar’s mind, no human would ever be better than him in the long-term. He ate the Mir loss in his second professional fight, learned from it and utterly annihilated him in the rematch. Meanwhile, Mir is still here and was just knocking at the door for another UFC title shot.

You think Lesnar wouldn’t have been right there in the title picture, as well? Of course he would.

Andreas Hale is a content producer for Jay Z’s LifeandTimes.com and editor-in-chief of PremierWuzHere.com, as well as a frequent Sherdog.com columnist. Check out his archive here.