Brock Lesnar will step back into the Octagon for the first time in nearly five years at UFC 200 on Saturday night with only five weeks of training under his belt.
Speaking on a media call late last week, Lesnar revealed that while he’d initially hoped to be on UFC 200, it looked more likely that UFC 205 in New York City this November was going to be the more likely landing spot for his shock return.
However, last-minute negotiations resulted in him being offered the co-main event spot at UFC 200 against Mark Hunt on short notice, which didn’t leave him with a whole lot of time to get into fighting shape.
“Not very long,” Lesnar told FOX Sports when asked about the length of time he’s had to prepare. “I wasn’t sure if it was even going to happen so I don’t remember the date, but I’ve been training four or five weeks.”
By no stretch of the imagination does that seem like a suitable amount of time to get ready after such a lengthy absence from fighting, though Lesnar did note that he never left the sport behind when he returned to the WWE in 2011 and continued to hit mitts and practice jiu-jitsu over the years, “just to pass time and stay in shape.”
Due to Lesnar’s notoriously reclusive nature, we only have his word for all of this. It’s entirely possible that he’s been working diligently behind the scenes to get ready for this fight long before it was announced, or maybe he is just willing to throw caution to the wind without much preparation, as he did when he first entered the sport back in 2007.
Time will tell, but it seems that Lesnar is under no illusion that he is a complete mixed martial artist, and he’s planning to use the skills he knows best to nullify the threat that Hunt presents him.
“Is he better than I am at stand up? Of course he is,” Lesnar stated. “Is he a better wrestler than me? Hell no. He’ll probably tell you that, too. That’s why we’re fighting. We’re going to see who the best man is with their disciplines on the night.”
