Brock Lesnar, the only ever UFC and WWE champion

At 1.96 m, 130 kg: Brock Lesnar is terrifying. The only man to have reigned over the biggest wrestling (WWE) and MMA (UFC) organizations, Lesnar is an indomitable beast of exceptional physical dimensions and determination.

Despite his status today, Lesnar came from very humble beginnings. He was born on July 12, 1977 into a poor farming family in Webster, South Dakota.

As a child, he would spend his days between the farm and school, getting exposed to a physical life from a very early age. He started wrestling at the age of five and quickly started seeing excellent results.

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However, at 13 years old, Brock Lesnar is nothing impressive. In his autobiography 'Death Clutch: My Story of Determination, Domination, and Survival', he stated that he weighed 46 kilos at 13 years old. However, when he was 18, he weighed 90, doubling his size in just five years.

This impressive physical development was a blessing for Lesnar because in his adolescence he was known for his superior agility and speed. Once he found himself with some extra size, he became an extremely mobile and agile heavyweight.

At 17, he joined the National Guard but was rejected because of his color blindness. He eventually left the National Guard after failing a keyboarding test for a secretarial position, as he explained in his biography.

Arriving at university, Lesnar resumed wrestling, which he had somewhat neglected in the preceding years. Lesnar proved to be formidable and crushed everything in his path to become Junior national champion in 1998. He would go on to win the NCAA heavyweight wrestling championship in 2000.

After trying out American football, he unexpectedly signed with WWE in June 2000 and became a professional wrestler. Why? To make money, quite simply.

He explained in his autobiography: "I couldn't stand being broke anymore and WWE was offering me more money than I could hope for." A wise choice because between 2002 and 2004 he was one of the company's biggest superstars and enjoyed multiple stints as the World Heavyweight Champion.

As good as it was, Lesnar found himself missing competition and in 2007, he announced his debut in MMA (mixed martial arts), at K-1. He won his first bout after one minute and nine seconds, according to MMA stat site Tapology, making himself one of the most watched MMA prospects in the world overnight.

Lesnar then signed with the UFC and was matched on February 2, 2008, against former heavyweight champion Frank Mir, but would be taken out with a knee lock after 90 seconds. He returned in August and won against Heath Herring, giving him a title fight against legend Randy Couture, according to Tapology.

Against all expectations, Lesnar dominated the fight and win by TKO in the second round. He became the first man to be champion in the UFC and WWE.

A rematch against Frank Mir was then organized and, this time, Brock Lesnar knocked out his opponent in the second round. An absolute demonstration followed by some iconic trash-talk, with Lesnar claiming that Frank Mir "had a horseshoe in his a-- during their first fight" and that he "pulled it out and hit his head with it" during the rematch, as told by Sports Illustrated.

Lesnar subsequently fell ill with diverticulitis, as told by the Bleacher Report, and was unable to defend his belt against Shane Carwin. He finally returned in 2010 and won by submission in round 2. However, he lost the belt to Cain Velasquez on October 23, 2010, before losing to Overeem a year later.

In 2012, he announced his return to WWE after eight years of absence. The crowd went wild and Lesnar quickly regained his championship title in 2014, after legendary rivalries against John Cena, Undertaker, CM Punk and Triple H.

Although he remained active in WWE, the champion returned to MMA in 2016 for a fight against Mark Hunt. He won by unanimous decision but the American anti-doping agency announced that a test taken by Brock Lesnar during preparation was positive for clomiphene, a testosterone booster, according to ESPN. The result was declared a no-contest and this fight would be Lesnar's last in the UFC.

While he was still an important WWE wrestler, Lesnar was implicated but not formally named in January 2024 as being involved in the alleged WWE/Vince McMahon a sex trafficking case, as reported by the Wall Street Journal. In the days that followed, he was removed from WWE's creative plans, as well as the video game WWE Supercard.

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