Brock Lesnar and Daniel Cormier had a very WWE-esk style of promotion for their upcoming UFC heavyweight title fight next year.
Cormeir won the UFC heavyweight championship at UFC 226 earlier this month (July 7, 2018) when he knocked out Stipe Miocic in the main event. He’s now the second man in UFC history to hold two titles in different weight classes simultaneously, as he also holds the promotion’s light heavyweight title.
After defeating Miocic, Cormier called Lesnar into the Octagon. They engaged in a verbal and physical altercation, and UFC President Dana White announced at the post-fight press conference that Cormier vs. Lesnar will be the next fight for the heavyweight throne. “The Beast” is eligible to return to the cage in January after serving out his suspension with the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA).
Monday Night RAW commentator Jonathan Coachman was recently a guest on Busted Open Radio, and revealed that a source close to the situation told him that Lesnar was actually upset with how pro wrestling-inspired Cormier’s approach to the confrontation was:
“This is a true story before we get too far away from it,” Coachman said. “I kinda say this not to take a dig at people who say ‘I’ve got these rumors, I got these real stories.’ I got this from a direct source, this is 100% fact.”
“When Brock Lesnar came into the Octagon and he shoved Daniel Cormier, I said to my source who I was talking to — who was there and was backstage. I said, ‘man [Lesnar and Cormier] had to have talked about that. They had to have.’
“He was like, ‘[Lesnar] was so pissed because Cormier made it so WWE.’ Brock was so mad that he did it that way. That shove was real, it wasn’t planned, it wasn’t talked about. Him [Lesnar] coming in [the cage] was, but the shove that everyone says was so WWE — Brock didn’t want it that way. Brock wanted it just on that fine line.’
“It was planned out that way that whoever won would call Brock in. Normally on a normal fight of that magnitude, you interview the winner and then the loser will stay and get interviewed. So I was hoping that Joe Rogan would say, ‘oh Brock you just said that about Stipe.’ It wasn’t planned that way, so Stipe was long gone.”
