Ex-WWE Star Knows Why Brock Lesnar MMA Fight Never Happened

A former WWE superstar thinks that the timing just wasn’t right for an MMA fight with Brock Lesnar.

Bobby Lashley did interviews for many years talking about how he wanted to face Brock Lesnar in WWE. The two men were natural rivals for each other in pro wrestling since they were both successful amateur wrestlers before they got into pro wrestling.

By the time Bobby Lashley got into pro wrestling in the mid-2000s, Brock Lesnar had left WWE in 2004 after not enjoying his time in the company due to travel and other factors.

When Lesnar returned to WWE in 2012, it was after he had a run in the UFC as the Heavyweight Champion, which is an incredible feat because it meant Lesnar was the only man to be WWE Champion and UFC Champion in history. At that point in his career, Lashley was doing some MMA along with pro wrestling away from WWE.

Eventually, Lashley and Lesnar did have some matches in WWE. Their first singles match at the 2022 Royal Rumble in WWE saw Lashley beat Lesnar to win the WWE Championship thanks to Roman Reigns and Paul Heyman screwing Lesnar out of the win. Lesnar would go on to win the Royal Rumble match later that night.

Brock Lesnar got his win back over Bobby Lashley at Crown Jewel 2022 in a match that was considered disappointing by a lot of people. Lashley took out his frustrations on Lesnar after it was over.

Bobby Lashley Says The Timing Wasn’t Right For Brock Lesnar Fight

While Brock Lesnar is a former UFC Heavyweight Champion who is recognized as one of the biggest draws in UFC history, Bobby Lashley never fought in UFC. Lashley still had an impressive MMA career with a record of 15-2 and his last five wins were in Bellator.

Since Lashley and Lashley haven’t fought in MMA since 2016 and since both men are in their late 40s, an MMA fight between them appears unlikely.

In a recent interview with Chris Van Vliet on Insight, Lashley spoke about why an MMA fight with Lesnar never happened.

“I think it would have been awesome, and we would have broken some numbers. A lot of people tried to talk, ‘I was chasing Brock.’ No. When I first came in, a lot people were trying to naturally fantasy book. We had similar characters. I didn’t accomplish the things Brcok did, but people still looked at it as, ‘Brock needs a match, that’s the guy he should match up with.’ When I went into fighting, they did the same thing. ‘Let’s get them to fight.’

We never really matched as far as time. When Brock got back into fighting, I was into wrestling. When I got out of wrestling and into fighting, Brock was in wrestling. We were never in the same environment at the same time until I was in WWE and he came back.”

Brock Lesnar hasn’t wrestled for WWE since SummerSlam 2023 when he lost to Cody Rhodes. Lesnar was scheduled to be part of the Men’s 2024 Royal Rumble match, but he was pulled from the show due to the bombshell sexual harassment and sex trafficking lawsuit against Vince McMahon that references Lesnar in the lawsuit.

It’s currently unknown when or if the 47-year-old Lesnar will appear in WWE again.