UFC And WWE Want Jones vs. Lesnar Fight
An MMA fight between Jon Jones and Brock Lesnar would likely be the biggest fight in UFC history, and it could generate tremendous crossover appeal for the WWE, but each man stands to benefit from such a match differently.
What’s In It for Jon Jones and the UFC?
For Jones, who called out Lesnar after decisively finishing his longtime rival Daniel Cormier at UFC 214 to claim the light heavyweight championship, a fight against the WWE’s Universal Champion would be the stuff of dreams: the biggest payday for a mixed martial arts fighter ever. He could stand to earn a payday of many millions of dollars just to step into the Octagon against Lesnar. A check of that size would stand in stark contrast to the $500,000 (less insurance, taxes and so on) that he made to dismantle Cormier, who got $1 million despite taking the loss.
Winning against Lesnar wouldn’t just be a huge cash-maker for Jones, regarded by many pundits in the fight game as one of the best all-arounders in the sport and the possessor of inventive striking techniques worthy of his place as successor to Anderson Silva. UFC President Dana White is no doubt already salivating over the pay-per-view draw a match between his new light heavyweight champ and one of the gnarliest heavyweights on Earth. UFC 214 had viewership well past the 1 million mark in terms of pay-per-view buy-ins, but White has to know that numbers like that aren’t going to be an everyday thing, so it’s no surprise he isn’t shying away from a colossal spectacle (manufactured though it may be).
How Does Brock Lesnar and the WWE Stand to Gain?
Lesnar would similarly be looking at a massive haul to square off against Jones, but his real interests no doubt lie in the chance to secure his legacy as one of the WWE’s greatest-ever Superstars. Crossover between MMA and pro wrestling is nothing new, and in fact modern MMA got started decades ago as an offshoot of “shoot” matches between wrestlers (that is to say, matches without predetermined outcomes or “works”). Such crossovers have produced bona fide heroes of the broader combat sports world, the Shamrock brothers, Bas Ruten and even Lesnar himself – who came off a break from UFC action to put away Mark Hunt, probably the hardest puncher the sport has yet seen, last year at UFC 200.
Winning against Jones would cement Lesnar’s place in the pantheon of pro wrestling, and, sweetening the pot further, he’s looking at being released from the WWE anyway as part of his place in an ongoing storyline. If he takes the loss in the four-way match to keep his Universal Championship at the upcoming SummerSlam event, he could be freed up to get ready to fight Jones without fear of taking time away from his “day job.”
Is a Match Between Jones and Lesnar Good for Pro Wrestling?
The good thing about pro wrestling is that, by its very nature, the entertainment side of the “sports entertainment” moniker can be entirely worked out to suit the best possible storyline at a given moment. This has to be going through the mind of WWE CEO Vince McMahon, who doubtless would love nothing more than to increase his own brand share by putting up one of his top wrestlers against one of the MMA scene’s poster boy-cum-prodigal sons. Having Lesnar make a UFC comeback against Jones sometime within the next year, and then – win, lose or draw – making an appearance at Wrestlemania 34 is a stupendously enticing proposition for McMahon and for the whole sport of wrestling, which is always hungry for validation in “legitimate” sports.
This is a fight that will happen if anyone has any good sense. Bovada has the odds at -160 that the match will take place by July 15, 2018, and +120 it won’t, so there’s that.
The Road to the Superfight
Jones and Lesnar both want a fight to happen, that much is not in doubt. However, the ways they’ll be getting there are different and depend greatly on how each man’s personal fortunes are shaping up.
Jones, 30, will have to go up in weight for one thing, though he did boast after KOing Cormier that he would defeat Lesnar despite the 40-pound fight-weight advantage. Shouldn’t be too hard for Jones to put on some muscle, but he’ll definitely go into any fight against Lesnar as the smaller man and the one with less power. His repertoire of highly accurate and technical moves on his feet and on the ground, to say nothing of his greater height and reach, should help him even up the score.
Lesnar, 40, though, will be in for a tough fight despite being bigger, sturdier and harder-hitting than his opponent. In almost the same way that Connor McGregor will be the underdog against Floyd Mayweather in their much-hyped August 26 boxing match, Lesnar will have to rely a lot on his puncher’s chance to catch up to the spritely and sometimes elusive Jones. That too shouldn’t be as much of a problem for Lesnar, who has shown himself to be pretty darn good on his feet too, and he is an excellent grappler in the vein of ground-and-pound experts of the UFC’s golden days.
Final Thoughts on the Superfight
Styles make fights, and one between Jones and Lesnar should be interesting in a way that fans of the sport haven’t seen as often lately as they might have even a few years ago.
But not everybody in the combat sports world is bullish. MMA legend Dan Henderson told a TMZ reporter over the weekend that he wouldn’t even be interested in seeing a fight between Jones and Lesnar, opining that such a bout isn’t “for anything” and that it would be “just for fun.”
In a sense, Henderson is right. Stacking millions and millions of dollars just to show up is probably almost as fun as stacking belts. The best part for both Jones and Lesnar is that neither has to put their straps up for grabs – we could be seeing the inception of the most heated, highest paying exhibition in the sport’s history. If that makes Jones and Lesnar exhibitionists, so be it.
Some of the more serious-minded UFC fans are saying Jones should go against Stipe Miocic, the current heavyweight title-holder, if Jonny Bones wants to go up in weight so badly. The newly crowned light-heavy champ doesn’t see it that way. Jones has basically chosen to take on Lesnar following the Mayweather/McGregor model, and who can blame him?
Many longtime fans certainly have no grounds to condemn his decision. We didn’t get to see Anderson Silva vs. Georges St-Pierre and Fedor Emelianenko vs. Randy Couture never happened, so it’s understandable that a chance at something with a little more hype could do wonders for engagement with the fan base – and that goes for UFC fans and WWE devotee alike. And if that makes the public little more than marks, that’s ok too.
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