Hunt makes sense because he's a top 10 fighter, popular on his own, coming off a win over Mir, and Dana reportedly told him to be ready for 200.

Kind of a bad matchup for Lesnar, though. He's pretty good at takedown defense due to his low center of gravity and basically his only weapons depending on him staying on his feet. That and Lesnar generally doesn't react well to getting punched in the face.

UFC could be taking a small loss on the transaction and it's still worth it to them for diff reasons.

It's a pride issue for all involved. Except maybe a payday for Brock if it's a real can, and even then.

Yeah, maybe Lesnar just gets beat and gets the pay day. At 38, not sure how many more times he planned to fight anyway.

He hasn't been in the cage in 4.5 years. And he got killed last time he fought.

Jon Jones who might be the best MMA fighter of all time is on the UFC 200 card and there is a good chance he plays second fiddle to Brock in the media tour for the card.

Brock being on the card might be just a gimmick for publicity but its gonna work.

I couldn't see Brock taking on Hunt unless he's just oblivious to who is who.

I think that's fan fiction. Best guess scenario is Mir again, which I've heard rumored in the past, or maybe Gonzaga. (I don't know their suspension situations - they're both coming off KO's)

Aldo, Bones best 2 P4P's of the last 5 years. Tate 2nd biggest woman's star and probably top 5 star in the company overall. Cain has a lot of name value as he was HW champ for like 3 years.

Seems like there would be an upper limit to what the PPV can do, if Brock is on it and he needs to be paid nicely, will that hurt their purses?

Honestly the whole HW class is suspect for the most part. Old, war torn and past prime as well as each top contender proven beatable. I feel like he fits right in.

Edit: except he brings a fans base larger than the rest of the names combined.

I could see the UFC paying Brock/WWE like 4 million and have that be separate from the rest of the books. This will help them in ways the rest of those folks just don't. Future revenue of potential fans plus reaching that ceiling you're posting about. This being a big event, I assume, would help with the appeal to those Chinese, and elsewhere, investors.

They really don't want this to be be underwhelming. It's the reason Conor played the hand he did, he thought he had one-time maximum leverage but the UFC won the game of chicken.

Other angle: what wouldve happened if Cormier/Jones pulled out?

Yeah, that makes sense that Brock's purse is separate because there is a lot of people on that card that you have to pay.

As far as the HW division, why is it so bad? Most of the top guys in the division are guys from 5-10 years ago and getting older. There are no up and comers at all really. Is it just that anyone 6'5 250 pounds that can kick ass and is a great athlete just goes into the NFL or tries to? These people aren't going into fighting I guess.

A little surprising how ****ty that division is. I remember when JDS/Cain/Carwin were coming up people thought that HW was going to start becoming the main attraction in UFC.

I wouldnt rate Tate as a top star. The womens division was popular because Rousey was finishing people in under a minute. Tate beat the girl that beat Rousey. She has some popularity but doesnt really move the needle.

UFC 200 is gonna get MMA fans, those people are locked in. When McGregor was on the card there was the chance to get people who werent MMA fans to tune in. I dont think UFC atm has anyone else that could pull in non UFC fans, maybe Rousey but the womens title is already on the card.

Lesnar is the perfect option. He is a draw outside the MMA world. The result of his fight doesnt matter, hes bringing in a big audience that isnt part of the MMA world.

Brock was in the UFC before Carwin, and was there longer.

Yes is the answer to that other question. Brendan Schuaub says he wouldn't want his kid to go into fighting but football is okay because even though you get ****ed up - the juice is worth the vig. His words.

There's not that much money in fighting currently and no pension to be had, plus obv a lot of dudes are turned off by what it is.

Still you would think MMA being a global sport that there would be more good fighters at the higher weight classes. It is almost all old guys.

Not like Brazilians or Europeans are becoming NFL LB's either.

Especially in the UFC since the Reebok deal.

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/blogs/m...10825-mma.html

1:40 mark lol

I'm of the (naive) belief that the Ali Act will be expanded to MMA in the not-terribly-distant future and the UFC would get fundamentally changed as a result.

Someone from UFC clarified that it wasn't "banned for life" more like "banned indefinetely" hopefully that 'small' distinction is true..

I really like Chuck Mindenhall and luke thomas is pretty good too. Iole does suck

Im a pretty hardcore fan and it doesn't interest me at all but brock isn't about pleasing the hardcores. Anyone in the top 5 destroys him, possibly top 10 for that matter i'd have to look at current rankings and anyone outside of that is not interesting at all... Of ppl not even in the UFC, Fedor or Shane Carwin would pique my interests tho

Ariel was definitely not given info from a "UFC bigwig". The UFC bigwigs just fired him from his gig on the UFC on FOX show where his entire job was to report spoon fed news from UFC bigwigs. Megan Olivi/Karyn bryant do his old job now ffs... Also Ariel takes his credibility and respect for his sources to the highest level of any journalist in sports media and has made that point and talked about how seriously he takes these things on his podcast multiple times. He's literally never broke a promise until today huh??

Can't remember who it was, possibly Dave Meltzer, I'm not sure, but someone smart on twitter speculated Brock takes it from a 1 million buy rate to a 1.5 million buy rate and the its been speculated the UFC would lose aprox 10 million on the UFC 200 card pre Brock. so that extra 500,000 buys at 60$ a pop are probably pretty important

so these numbers seem in the ballpark

this is a very good post

It's Hunt, damn.

Be curious to see what the odds will be. Not easy to make odds on a guy that hasn't fought in 5 years.

Unless it is lolrigged seems like Hunt would kill him. A little surprised WWE/Lesnar agreed to this.

Lesnar -200/Hunt +176 per Pinny

The biggest gigantic factor in the match is "how much has Brock actually trained? " Brock had an elite power takedown game and was a monster wrestler. But us he even still in shape?

Hunt is now -160..Line moved a ton.

Training and training to fight are two different things as well, just seems hard to believe Lesnar can step back into the cage after a 5 year layoff and beat a top 10-15 HW. Hunt's only losses lately are to the top guys in the division.

Hunt is top 5.

I'm not sure Brock knows what he's getting himself into. Hunt only needs to connect once and Brock is gonna be like Lombard the other night.

right, I said the only way Brock takes on Hunt is if he doesn't know who is who

hunt is no where top 5

http://rankingmma.com/ufc-rankings/heavyweight/

being 9 is about right and Hunt just suck if he gets taking down 100%...

Lesnar has some good chance to win this.
Making a long shot bet, this would be the fight to pick.

Mixed reports are coming out but it looks like Kimbo died.

Look how bad Jon Jones looked after a year off, and that is JJ. I can't imagine anyone coming back from a 5 year layoff will look any good.