Paul Heyman: Brock Lesnar was never at ‘physical peak’ for a UFC fight

When you look at Brock Lesnar, it’s hard to imagine the heavyweight has ever lost a fight in the UFC. Lesnar always appears to be in top physical condition, but his manager insists that is rarely the case. For Lesnar’s UFC bouts, that has apparently never been the case.

In a recent appearance on the Fight Society Podcast, Paul Heyman spoke about Lesnar’s battles with diverticulitis over the past several years.

“I would suggest that Brock is really now in his physical prime because he was robbed of reaching his full potential as an athlete in his 20s and early-30ss by diverticulitis,” Heyman said, via Damon Martin of FOX Sports. “If you look back at his career, by the time he was in the NCAA Division I wrestling championships, he was already suffering from diverticulitis.”

We first learned about Lesnar’s struggles with the intestinal condition when he pulled out of his scheduled fight against Junior dos Santos in 2011, but diverticulitis was also the reason he had to bail on a fight in 2009. According to Heyman, the condition affected Lesnar long before that.

“So you never saw him at his full potential in college,” he continued. “You never saw him at his full potential in his first run in WWE. He went into the Minnesota Vikings camp not only with the diverticulitis inside of his system but a broken jaw and a fractured pelvis, which he covered in the book that we wrote together and then you never saw him, not once did you see him in UFC at his absolute physical peak.”

Lesnar, now 39, dominated Mark Hunt at UFC 200 last July only to have the win vacated because of multiple failed drug tests. He was suspended a year by the Nevada State Athletic Commission as a result, but Heyman said the recent rumors about Lesnar’s UFC career are not necessarily true.

While winning a UFC fight after his 40th birthday would be quite an accomplishment for Lesnar, the odds are still against it happening.

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