“You didn’t have to be the valedictorian of the class to realize that Brock Lesnar was a very exceptional athlete. It’s pretty amazing to think that a 6’3” 300lbs man is lean and as athletic as Brock Lesnar. Strong! Great agility, great quickness. You don’t run across too many Brock Lesnar (s) in a lifetime.” Former WWE commentator Jim Ross said this regarding Brock Lesnar in 2003. In case you haven’t noticed, a lot has happened since then! Lesnar fell out with the promotion in early 2004 before making his UFC debut four years later.

Unsurprisingly, the MMA world didn’t take his advent into a ‘real’ fighting sport well, but guess what? ‘The Beast Incarnate’ proved everybody wrong and clinched the heavyweight title by slaying Randy Couture in only his third UFC outing. Moreover, Lesnar even struck fear into his opponents’ hearts, with fellow former champion Cain Velasquez being among the bunch. For the unversed, ‘Cardio Cain’ has crossed paths with Lesnar in both UFC and WWE. While it’s better to forget their lackluster professional wrestling match, their title clash at UFC 121 saw the Mexican juggernaut come out as the victor and maul Lesnar in a way no one imagined.

This makes it all the more shocking that Velasquez had his reservations about Lesnar’s gargantuan size and athleticism before their bout. And why not? Lesnar is not a normal-sized human being! For most of his professional fighting career, he was billed at around 300lbs and that’s exactly what Velasquez was concerned about. The inhuman size of Lesnar was the real intimidation factor because both fighters had a massive weight difference. For context, the former WWE and UFC champion weighed in at 264 pounds for UFC 121, just a pound shy of the heavyweight limit, while Velasquez weighed in at 244 pounds. But certain sources claim that Lesnar almost weighed around 300lbs by the time the fight night arrived.

Surely, it was a concerning matter, as Velasquez was left lost for words. “Obviously, his size. His size, his power, and knowing how good of a wrestler he is. Again, OK, dangerous, can be dangerous, especially with a certain style, for sure. But his massive size is like, ‘Wow, it’s a big human.'” The former 2-time champ revealed during an interview with fellow fighter Tim Kennedy on YouTube. Moreover, he also did not underestimate the WWE legend’s wrestling prowess, given that Lesnar was the 2000 NCAA D1 champion.

“I probably weighed in at, like, 240-something going in,” Velasquez added. “My strong suits with him, I was very good at getting off on the bottom. We did this in college wrestling a lot. I was just very good at getting up from the bottom, so I knew if I were to get stuck there, then it could be a long night for me, but we worked on that over and over again with DC. We had another national champion heavyweight wrestler come in.”

Even Lesnar’s arch nemesis Frank Mir had mentioned ‘The Beast Incarnate’s wrestling pedigree at a time when people were downplaying Lesnar for his affiliation with WWE.

When Cain Velasquez defeated Brock Lesnar, the latter might have been a bit disappointed, but that was a learning curve for him as well. Years after the epic heavyweight clash, he’d open up about the matchup during an interview. Here’s what he had to say.

Brock Lesnar’s thoughts on losing to Cain Velasquez at UFC 121

Even though Brock Lesnar is a big individual, Cain Velasquez was also one of the most feared fighters in UFC history. However, that’s not why the former WWE and UFC star lost to his rival that night. In fact, Lesnar admitted in his book Death Clutch that Velasquez was the better man that night and that loss taught him to increase his “focus” when it comes to becoming a better and more refined fighter.

“Why did I lose that night? Plain and simple. On that night, in that arena, Cain Velasquez was a better fighter than I was. There’s an old expression about falling off a horse. You get back on, and you ride that bad boy into town,” wrote Brock Lesnar. “I’m not saying I’m happy about losing the UFC title, but I am saying it helped me focus again on how much I want to be champion.”

Despite that loss, nobody can dismiss the fact that Brock Lesnar was an absolute spectacle for fans. In fact, he was perhaps the biggest draw for the promotion before the Conor McGregor era. Just watch UFC 100 and you will understand the cultural impact Lesnar had on the sport. What do you think about the former champ’s size and animosity? Drop your comments below!