Dana White Confirms Brock Lesnar Is "Done" With UFC
Dana White has further commented to TMZ Sports on former UFC and current WWE superstar Brock Lesnar's status with UFC. White solidified that Lesnar is finished with UFC at this point.
"He's done," White stated. "He's made his decision. I don't know where he is in that other world. I know he was looking at doing a new deal with Vince [McMahon] to stay with WWE. I've always had a good relationship with Brock. We've always dealt really well with each other."
White also mentioned that in order to fight in UFC you have to be fully invested in fighting. Questioning Lesnar's mental dedication to UFC, White agreed Lesnar made the right call by choosing not to fight again.
"When you decide or don't decide to fight, it's a decision you have to mentally be ready to fight," White said. "You have to be all in on fighting. If you're not all in, then you shouldn't fight. He made a decision and it's the right decision."
Though Lesnar now appears to have completed his UFC run for now, there has been speculation as to why Lesnar left UFC in the first place. It has been argued that UFC's pay-per-view deal with ESPN combined with an alleged declining pay-per-view industry played into Lesnar's decision, which was rebuked by White.
"That's absolutely false," White claimed in a previous interview with ESPN. "And if you really look when we were on pay-per-view, we were on traditional pay-per-view, everybody was talking about how the pay-per-view business was dying. It's dying and nobody can pull numbers anymore ... We were still pulling five to seven million pay-per-view buys a year when we were on the dying, traditional pay-per-view."
It was also entertained that Vince McMahon simply offered Lesnar a more financially beneficial deal to remain in WWE.
"Brock Lesnar got a better deal is basically what happened for Brock" White said of a sought after Lesnar.
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit TMZ Sports with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.