Let me start by throwing this out there, expect Brock Lesnar and Frank Mir to be announced as the next coaches for The Ultimate Fighter at today's UFC 125 press conference. You can watch the press conference at Bloody Elbow at 4:00 p.m. My sources have been wrong before but I'm hearing it from multiple places.
Brock Lesnar And Frank Mir May Coach The Ultimate Fighter, More Thoughts On Lesnar’s Status
Former long-time WWE commentary man Jim Ross recently chimed in on the situation with Brock Lesnar. Ross is of the opinion that Lesnar leaving MMA to go back to pro-wrestling does not make a lot of sense. From his blog post:
Lots of crazy rumors floating around the MMA message boards about Brock Lesnar these days. Some fans feel that Lesnar is looking to leave UFC and return to WWE. That decision would floor me. It doesn’t seem to make sense at this time for Lesnar to leave UFC as there is too much Octagon money on the table for Brock to walk away at this time. I just can’t see the athletic freak going back on the WWE road for any significant length of time especially with young children at home and Brock being most comfortable when he is in the Minnesota woods enjoying family life and hunting.
Don’t get me wrong, as a fan I would embrace a Lesnar return to WWE and it ‘might’ happen on a sporadic basis some day but not any time soon.
I still think that UFC’s best bout for Lesnar’s 1st fight in 2011 with the best story behind it that could be easily enhanced/marketed with smart TV production is Brock vs. Frank Mir. I know that some MMA aficionados aren’t of the same opinion. However, MMA fans would engage this well promoted ‘rubber match’ once the hype started that I can assure you.
I talked about the situation more at Bloody Elbow last night after spending the day asking around to get a sense of the situation:
From asking around I'm getting the feeling that Lesnar isn't interested in getting handed a fight where he might take a beating again (think Shane Carwin rematch) and is looking for fights that he is comfortable he will win (think Frank Mir rubber match). There's no shame in not wanting to go from Carwin to Cain Velasquez and back to Carwin. He's fought an incredibly tough schedule given his experience level and wanting a "bounce back fight" is not cowardly, it's a pretty smart business decision. And I say that as someone who was really upset with Brock earlier.
I'm a little disappointed that in my asking around I was kind of given the impression that Brock isn't really looking to "learn" from the Velasquez loss. Which may speak to some sort of personal realization that he isn't likely to ever be able to beat someone like Cain (which is true) and from here out it's an opportunity to maximize how much money he makes the rest of his career.
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