In a recent interview with Business Insider, Stephanie McMahon talked about Brock Lesnar’s upcoming fight against Mark Hunt at UFC 200 in July.
McMahon started off by stating that one key reason they allowed Lesnar to participate in the colossal event, was because they do not see the mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion as a competitor:
“UFC, they can make a big star but the second that person loses, they lose credibility, and how do you continue to make that star rise?” Stephanie said. “So I think [WWE has] the best of both worlds and the opportunity to tell the stories in the way we want to tell them. In Brock Lesnar’s case it was really a special case that we are allowing him to do this fight [against Mark Hunt on July 9]. But like you said it’s not really a cross-promotional opportunity, but we are allowing him to participate in that fight,” Stephanie said.
McMahon went on to claim that the WWE is not ‘supporting’ Lesnar’s upcoming UFC bout, but again they do not see the promotion as a competitor therefore they are allowing it:
“We are not supporting the fight necessarily but, again, it’s not a competitor to us and the more that our superstars, that’s how we refer to our talent, the more they do outside of WWE, the more awareness it generates and the broader the audience can be that is then brought back into our properties. So we recognize the value of that.”
