What’s the story?
Brock Lesnar was nearly scheduled to fight boxing phenomenon Lenox Lewis in Las Vegas back in the day. According to a report in MMA Fighting.com, Vince McMahon and Lennox Lewis’ camp were in talks over a prospective bout about 15 years ago.
In case you didn’t know…
Lennox Lewis was no amateur boxer. In fact, he was a three-time World Heavyweight Champion and also held the Lineal Heavyweight title. To this day, he still remains the last Undisputed Heavyweight Champion.
Lesnar, on the other hand, has become a multi-platform athlete over the years. Following a dominant career in the NCAA wrestling world, Lesnar signed up with the WWE, where he was very successful. He then tried his hand at MMA and went on to win the UFC Heavyweight Championship.
The heart of the matter
There have been talks of a fight between boxer Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor recently. Cross-promotional bouts, though, are not a new thing. In fact, it is hard to remember who the originators were.
Back in 2002, Lewis had approached McMahon to talk about the idea of a joint promotion. Obviously, the boxer had his intentions clear – a big fight against a non-fighter and a nice pay day – and McMahon was actually interested.
Also read: WWE Rumors: WWE built up Brock Lesnar as an unbeatable monster so he could lose to Roman Reigns
In the previous two years, WWE had taken somewhat of a downfall with The Rock leaving for Hollywood and Steve Austin being plagued by injuries. McMahon had taken the call of building the future of his company around Lesnar. And the idea seemed profitable for McMahon.
However, the fight never happened as Lewis allegedly wanted a few modifications to the rules including no takedowns below the waist. This gave McMahon cold feet and although the fight was already scheduled, it was called off.
What’s next?
The mere prospect of a fight between Mayweather and McGregor is very fascinating. As for Lesnar, his career, of course, turned out to be very successful even without the big money fight with Lennox Lewis.
Author’s take
Had the fight happened, it would have been interesting to see how Brock Lesnar’s career would have panned out. Maybe, he would have joined MMA earlier. However, we are not complaining about what we have got already.
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