Daniel Cormier Says That Brock Lesnar’s MMA Retirement Was Over Money

Daniel Cormier believes that Brock Lesnar’s retirement from mixed martial arts was simply a financial decision from the Beast. ESPN’s Marc Raimondi posted to Twitter noting that he spoke with Cormier about Lesnar’s retirement late last month was a matter of his being able to make more money with WWE than he could with the UFC.

“I’m sure Brock couldn’t come to terms with the UFC, in terms of financial offer,” Cormier said, as you can see in the tweet below. “There’s a lot of uncertainty in the world of mixed martial arts right now in terms of pay-per-view. It’s not as straight forward as when Brock was there. I think when Brock looked at the landscape of the sport, what they were offering him, Brock said, ‘I can make guaranteed money [in WWE].’ Not work as hard. He’d have to work his ass off [to fight me] and it’s probably gonna go the bad way. Whereas with the WWE, it’s usually determined in his favor. So, as a businessman, I think Brock made the right decision.”

Cormier was expected to face Lesnar with the UFC heavyweight championship on the line, but that fight never got made. Cormier, a noted fan of wrestling and WWE, also weighed in on WWE’s booking of Lesnar.

“Then it works, right? Everybody is talking like, ‘Oh, Vince McMahon keeps putting the belt on Brock’ or keeps doing this with Brock,” he said. “Brock was on the pay-per-view and then Brock was on Monday night and the ratings increased. … There’s a method to the old man’s madness. He just continues to kind of rely on Brock and Brock has shown to be a commodity that keeps working for him.”

I asked @dc_mma about how he felt when he saw Brock Lesnar return to WWE earlier this month, choosing that over fighting Cormier this summer. Here's what DC said: pic.twitter.com/bJbRB0wzu0

— Marc Raimondi (@marc_raimondi) May 30, 2019