JBL has thrown his support behind the idea of Brock Lesnar returning for one more MMA fight on the Jake Paul-aligned Netflix platform that hosts Ronda Rousey vs Gina Carano on Saturday, telling Something to Wrestle listeners that it would be one of the biggest draws available to combat sports right now.
The conversation came up when Thompson floated the idea that the success of the Rousey-Carano Netflix MMA card under Jake Paul’s MVP promotions could open the door for one-off MMA appearances from former UFC main eventers who left the sport years ago. He named Brock Lesnar specifically.
“Holy shit. With that guy, draw money. Oh my God. Two things you said in the last month that have blown me away was, Brock might be negotiating by retiring surreptitiously and just kind of doing it. And that blew me away. I thought, my God, if that’s it, that’s the greatest negotiation ever. We have no idea, you and I, neither one have any idea if that’s true or not. That’s just total speculation. But my God, that is, what a sentence that is.”
He then put a specific dollar emphasis on the Brock-MMA-return scenario.
“But Brock having one more fight. Come on. Lord, take my money. Take my money. Now, I mean, things like with these great fighters like Gina Carano, she’s a terrific fighter, very appealing character. You know, people are drawn to her, just like they are Ronda Rousey, for very good reasons. One of the biggest draws of all time. I think it’s fantastic what they’re doing.”
JBL was upbeat on the entire infrastructure that the new Paul-aligned Netflix MMA project sits inside.
“Is it an opportunity? Oh my God, is it? Yes. Look at what’s going on. The Independence right now. You can’t compete with WWE as far as the global infrastructure and what they’ve got. But can you compete and make a lot of money? Not compete, but can you make a lot of money? Absolutely. I mean, there’s a real spot there for another group. I think Netflix could hit it out of the park here, and hopefully the show’s good.”
He name-checked Nate Diaz as one of the personalities on the card.
“You’ve got some interesting characters. I mean, I love Nate Diaz, who, who doesn’t, my God, man, that guy, you just want to watch this guy fight, you want to watch this guy talk. He’s like Chael Sonnen. You know, some guys, just, you’re just drawn to, and he’s one of them. He’s just fun. Yeah, I’m very excited about this.”
The Saturday Netflix card hosted by Jake Paul’s MVP promotions is headlined by Rousey vs Carano with Junior dos Santos, Nate Diaz, and Francis Ngannou on the undercard.
Lesnar has not fought in MMA since 2018, when his post-UFC 200 result against Mark Hunt was overturned to a no-contest by USADA. He seemingly retired at WrestleMania 42 after a loss to Omos by leaving his boots in the ring, though there is much speculation that he didn’t actually retire and may wrestle again at SummerSlam in Minnesota.
If you use quotes from this article, please credit Something to Wrestle with Bruce Prichard and include a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
