Brock Lesnar looked back on his loss to Cain Velasquez and his battle with diverticulitis while with UFC. 

Lesnar opened up on his post-WWE career in MMA – prior to his return in 2012 – during an interview on “Spittin’ Chiclets,” recalling his early career when the UFC wasn’t interested, when he did sign and fights the likes of Frank Mir and Randy Couture to become Heavyweight Champion, but also the losses he sustained towards the end of his run before eventually returning to WWE. 

“I wasn’t ever really scared of anybody,” he said. “But I felt threatened, there’s certain threats… Cain Velasquez, he handed me my a** in Anaheim. But I think, for me, going through diverticulitis really took a lot of fight out of me. I almost died with that disease and afterwards it changed my life and it changed my mentality towards the sport.”

Lesnar lost to Velasquez via knock-out to drop the UFC Heavyweight Championship in October 2010. He returned over a year later having had surgery to treat his diverticulitis, removing 12 inches of his colon, to face Alistair Overeem. That fight ended in round one after Overeem punished the torso of Lesnar, delivering a kick to drop him and punches until the referee called the fight. 

Lesnar retired from MMA and returned to WWE after that fight, save for a one-off return against Mark Hunt at UFC 200 in 2016; he won that fight on the night, though the result was overturned to a no-contest after he failed USADA testing. 

Alistair Overeem looked back on his first-round knock out of Brock Lesnar at UFC 141 in 2011, ranking it the most memorable moment of his fighting career. 

Overeem finished his MMA career with a 47-19 (1 NC) record, collecting marquee opponents as one of the most recognizable heavyweights in the sport in his own right. 

One such opponent was former UFC Heavyweight Champion and WWE legend Brock Lesnar, dropping the “Beast Incarnate” into submission with a kick to his surgically repaired mid-section within the first round. He had softened the area with knees and shots to the body, finally catching him with a left kick, Lesnar wincing and dropping to the floor a second or so later as Overeem followed up with punches to the face. 

“I get a lot of response [from the Brock fight,” Overeem told “Uncrowned’s” Tris Dixon. “I think that was a masterpiece. The body shots with the knee, the beautiful setup.”

“Wrestlers are physically strong, but they’re not used to absorbing strikes,” he continued. “I had this sparring partner in my training camp who was exactly like Brock, physically a strong wrestler, actually standing up a little better. And I noticed when I was sparring him… I noticed head strikes that he could absorb… but his body was extremely weak. Just one knee would kind of take him out.”

Overeem said that he formulated his game plan from that observation, head strikes were not going to work. 

“‘I’m going to give him some knees. I’m going to distract him with some punches to the head. I’m going to finish him with the liver kick.’ Which in the Brock fight, turned out excellent,” he said.

Lesnar retired from MMA after his loss to Overeem, returning to WWE in 2012. He did fight a one-off return at UFC 200 in 2016, defeating Mark Hunt, but the result was overturned to a no-contest after he tested positive for PEDs.

Welcome to Wrestling Inc.’s live coverage for “WWE SmackDown” on March 27, 2026, coming to you live from the PPG Paints Arena In Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania!

The various different facets of Randy Orton’s personality were showcased during last Friday’s episode of “SmackDown”, with Orton doing everything from expressing his love for the fans and his confidence in dethroning Cody Rhodes as Undisputed WWE Champion at WrestleMania 42 to leaving Matt Cardona laid out with an attack. As all of the voices in his head seem to overlap with each other, Orton will be making an appearance on tonight’s show.

Women’s United States Champion Giulia will be competing in her first singles match since coming up short to Rhea Ripley via disqualification on the February 20 episode of “SmackDown” as she faces former Women’s Champion Tiffany Stratton. Stratton scored a win against Giulia’s ally Kiana James in singles competition on the March 13 episode of “SmackDown” despite a miscommunication between James and Giulia that was caused by the injured Chelsea Green.

Speaking of Ripley, she will be making an appearance of her own with something on her mind to share. Ripley came face-to-face with Women’s Champion Jade Cargill last Friday ahead of their WrestleMania 42 match in a tense verbal confrontation, but B-Fab and Michin surprised Ripley with an attack as the newfound allies of Cargill.

Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss will be in action as they collide with Nikki Bella and Brie Bella in tag team competition. With Nikki and Brie having cost Flair and Bliss their shot at Nia Jax and Lash Legend’s Women’s Tag Team Championship on March 13 when they interfered in the match, Flair and Bliss decided to return the favor last Friday when they cost Nikki and Brie their own Women’s Tag Team Match by becoming involved.

Country singer and rapper Jelly Roll will be competing in his first match since Night One of WWE SummerSlam on August 2, 2025 and second ever professional wrestling match when he goes head-to-head with Kit Wilson. Jelly Roll and Wilson have met one another in a couple of tense verbal confrontations, including last Friday when they had a slam poetry contest against one another.

Carmelo Hayes successfully defended his United States Championship against longtime respected rival Ilja Dragunov during the return of the US Open Challenge last Friday. Tonight, he will be bringing it back when he issues another US Open Challenge to anyone in the back who wishes to answer the call.

Additionally, Nick Aldis will be addressing the medical statuses of Drew McIntyre and Jacob Fatu after the latter two men spent most of last Friday’s show brawling with one another that ended with both falling off a high platform in the parking lot of the Lenovo Center.

A special Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders meeting will soon be held to vote on the sale to Paramount Skydance, according to Dave Meltzer in the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. News of the sale first broke at the end of February after weeks of bidding between companies.

According to Meltzer, WBD will host the shareholders meeting to vote on the sale on April 23 at 10 a.m. He reported that shareholders will get $31 per share in the sale, which is above the current $12.54 current share prices.

Netflix previously announced that it had agreed to a WBD merger back in December, but in February, Netflix withdrew its bid after Paramount submitted an offer that WBD determined to be superior. All news regarding the potential merger, then the sale, made headlines across the professional wrestling sphere due to WWE’s media deal with Netflix.

It was also revealed that WBD had a small ownership stake in WWE’s competition, AEW. Meltzer reported at the beginning of March that Paramount will take over WBD’s stake in the company once the acquisition is complete. Around that time, Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison revealed that the company intends to combine HBO Max with Paramount+ into one streaming service, despite wanting to keep WBD properties like HBO “independent.”

While AEW streams “AEW Dynamite,” “AEW Collision,” and its pay-per-views on HBO Max, UFC, owned by TKO, is exclusively housed on Paramount+ as of the beginning of this year. While it’s unclear how things will proceed when the acquisition is final, AEW is set to negotiate a new media rights deal in 2027 or 2028.

When asked why he thought White had no interest in bringing him to UFC despite his established fame, Lesnar reasoned that he had no legitimacy in the fight game.

“I had no credibility, and I don’t blame him. I was an amateur wrestler and a fake entertainer. So he didn’t care. I fought a tomato can in my first fight. I beat him in 90 seconds and I didn’t prove myself yet. So he threw me to the wolves. My first fight is against Frank… He almost broke my leg in half… So it was just one of those things where I had to prove myself to him.”

When all was said and done, Lesnar said he did “quite well” financially as a result of the deal, even if he didn’t know the specifics of his pay scale compared to money drawn. He was also asked what he found to be his fondest accolade: the NCAA National Wrestling Championship or UFC Heavyweight Championship.

“I think my most prestigious award for me is my National Championship in college,” he said. “Because to be that young kid and to be raw, and to carry that dream and to finally win at a discipline you’ve been trying to master for 17 years. That’s probably my biggest accolade I can hang my hat on.”

Lesnar admitted that Randy Couture was aging when he dethroned him for the UFC title. “He was on his way out. Dana was trying to get rid of Randy because they didn’t see eye to eye in the pay scale and all these other things. So I think Dana was really hoping I was going to beat him, and he was very ecstatic about it at the time.”