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Paul Heyman says Brock Lesnar would still be UFC champion at 49 without diverticulitis

Lesnar's long-time WWE manager told Graham Bensinger that nobody would get out of the first round with a healthy Lesnar, who left the sport in 2011.

By Combat Sports UK Staff · Published · AI-assisted reporting
Photos: Gavin Bond/Zuffa LLC and Cooper Neil/WWE via Getty Images

Paul Heyman has said Brock Lesnar would still be the UFC heavyweight champion today, at 49, if diverticulitis had not cut short his mixed martial arts career.

"If he didn't have diverticulitis, he would have never been defeated in the UFC," Heyman, Lesnar's long-time WWE manager, told Graham Bensinger. "Never. Never. He'd still be champion today at 49. There's nobody on this planet that could hang with him, no one. No one. No one. No one would get out of the first round with him. There's no way."

Lesnar lost his UFC debut, then won the heavyweight title two fights later by stopping Randy Couture in the second round in 2008. He avenged his loss to Frank Mir by stopping him at UFC 100.

His title reign ended in 2010, when Cain Velasquez finished him in the first round after his health problems. Lesnar's battles with diverticulitis led him to leave the sport in 2011. A return against Mark Hunt in 2016 was overturned to a no contest.

Lesnar met Velasquez again in a WWE ring at Crown Jewel in 2019 and won in just over two minutes. He wrestled his final WWE match in August.

Frank Mir's daughter Bella has said that "everyone is always trying to get me to fight" Lesnar's daughter Mya, and that she would do it "if the money's there".

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About this report

Reported by the Combat Sports UK desk. Times are UK and Irish time, and we update the report when the facts change. How we work.