Forget the hoopla surrounding the Floyd Mayweather/Conor McGregor tilt scheduled for late August, there is a bigger and better mega-fight being talked about.
While promoting his upcoming fight against Daniel Cormier at UFC 214 this Saturday, Jon Jones responded to a question regarding the possibility of squaring off against current WWE Universal Champion Brock Lesnar.
“I would love to fight Brock Lesnar,” Jones said during a Facebook Live session.
“He’s a massive dude” Jones continued (h/t Bleacher Report’s Rob Goldberg).
“I mean, it would be a massive draw. Really big for the sport. It’d be a great challenge. That’s a big ol’ boy. I doubt Brock Lesnar would take that fight, though.”
Lesnar responded to the idea of a Jones/Lesnar blockbuster.
“Would I fight Jon Jones? Anytime, anywhere,” Lesnar said, per Greg Beacham of the Associated Press. “Right now he should be worried about D.C. [Daniel Cormier] on Saturday night.”
Jones later added, during promotion for the fight, that:
“I’ll deal with Daniel, then I’ll deal with Brock Lesnar.”
According to sources, WWE is aware of the talk, which is apparently more than just “fantasy”. Lesnar has real interest in going back to UFC once his contract expires next year and is eyeing a mega-fight with Jon Jones upon his return.
Naturally, Lesnar will have to serve out his suspension which was “frozen” once he announced his retirement.
WWE is scrambling to plan around the very real possibility that Lesnar could head back to the octagon and is strongly considering having Lesnar drop the title at ‘SummerSlam’.
WWE is hoping that they can milk one more mega-fight out of Lesnar for next year’s WrestleMania and while they are hopeful that Lesnar would again return after another run in the UFC, they will plan as if he won’t and book him accordingly.
WWE would likely prefer to book Lesnar against an opponent that would be considerably catapulted or “made” with a big ‘Mania’ win over Lesnar. One superstar could be Reigns, but WWE is leaning towards a younger, less-established talent for that role.
WWE is likely holding out the slim hope that they can land ‘The Rock’ for next year’s WrestleMania and put him against Brock Lesnar in a mega-fight of epic proportions, but WWE also has to understand that it will be difficult to do so.
Lesnar, at this point, seems legit interested in a return to MMA and the UFC has to be salivating over a potential Lesnar/Jones megafight.