With Brock Lesnar and CM Punk both officially on the upcoming UFC fight calendar for the second half of 2016, it’s interesting to speculate what the reaction would have been to the following third well-known WWE Superstar who apparently considered making the transition as well.
Former WWE Superstar and Hollywood A-lister Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson appeared on the second episode of the new “UFC Unfiltered” podcast with Jim Norton and Matt Serra and spoke about the time he contemplated making a move towards the Octagon.
“There was a time there where I thought, man, I achieved everything I wanted to achieve in WWE, my movie career is floundering a little bit, what do I do?” Johnson said. “I was relatively still young, I think I was 34. I thought, oh well maybe UFC. Maybe I should do something like that.”
As The Rock explained, the idea of a move to the UFC never got far past the mulling-over point.
“In my head, I felt like it was at least a two-year process for me to even get in the [cage], let alone the UFC,” Johnson said. “I wasn’t quite too sure what to do or what kind of people to put around me at the time, so the idea kind of fizzled out and I continued to stay on the path of movie making.”
Johnson, who also spoke about his former WWE colleague Brock Lesnar returning to fight Mark Hunt at the upcoming landmark UFC 200 event, concluded.
“Still a big fan and love the sport,” Johnson said. “But at one time, I did consider it.”
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson currently stars alongside Kevin Hart in the film “Central Intelligence,” which is in theaters now.
Episode two of the new “UFC Unfiltered” podcast, which features The Rock and CM Punk, is available now at UFC.com.
H/T to MMAFighting.com for transcribing the above quotes.
