What Makes Oba Femi Unique As Brock Lesnar’s Opponent At WWE WrestleMania 42
A man who knows Brock Lesnar very well thinks “The Beast” may have met his match at WrestleMania 42.
In the opening match at WrestleMania 42 Sunday, the legendary 10-time former WWE Champion Brock Lesnar will face a man of similar stature, Oba Femi.
While the two men are similar physically, Lesnar has the experience edge because he had his first WrestleMania match 23 years ago, and that was the main event of WrestleMania 19. As for Femi, this will be his first WrestleMania match, and he’s only been wrestling on WWE television for a few years.
Many fans are anticipating the Lesnar-Femi “clash of the titans” and have called it their most anticipated match at WrestleMania just to see if “The Ruler” Femi can beat Lesnar at WrestleMania.
John Cena knows Brock Lesnar very well, as they trained together at OVW over 25 years ago, and both debuted around the same time in 2002. In most of their matches on the WWE main roster, Lesnar was victorious over Cena, just like he was in their last match at Wrestlepalooza in September 2025, when Lesnar won easily.
While speaking to Denise Salcedo at the WWE Hall of Fame ceremony, the WrestleMania 42 host John Cena gave his opinion on the Lesnar/Femi match.
“I think Brock Lesnar is a once in a genre talent, and I don’t mean once in a generation, I mean once in wrestling, and it’s very difficult to solve the puzzle that’s Brock Lesnar. Oba Femi is Brock Lesnar’s even match, and I think that’s what’s exciting about that matchup.”
John Cena Credits Oba Femi For Having The Courage To Face Brock Lesnar
As he continued speaking about his excitement for the Lesnar-Femi match, Cena made the point that Femi has the courage to step in the ring to fight Lesnar. Cena also admitted that while he stepped up to face Lesnar in the past, he was also terrified at the same time.
“Everyone, everyone goes into a match with Brock Lesnar, an underdog, except Oba Femi. I think that’s the allure everyone wants to see, two tanks square off in this ring, and not just two big men, two gifted men, two big, agile, mobile, versatile athletes, and shout out to Oba, he has the courage to stand in there.
I’ve had many moments where I’ve shared with Brock Lesnar, and the moments where I’ve had the courage to charge the hill, I’m still ready to crap my pants. Oba has the courage and confidence to charge the hill, and I think Brock has never seen that out of a challenger before. End stop.”
Since Brock Lesnar is the same age as the recently retired John Cena and AJ Styles and will turn 49 in July, there is speculation that Lesnar may retire soon, so this could be Lesnar’s final WrestleMania match, even though it hasn’t been promoted as such.
In a past interview, Cena let it slip that Lesnar was considering retiring at SummerSlam 2026 because it’s taking place in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where Lesnar spent many years of his life and was a standout collegiate wrestler.
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