There are a long list of what ifs in the world of MMA. What if Fedor fought in the UFC? What if Chael Sonnen survived until the end of the round against Jon Jones? What if Brock Lesnar hadn’t suffered from diverticulitis? What if Georges St-Pierre and Anderson Silva fought in their prime?
A new addition to the long list is, what if Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson fought in the UFC?
The movie star and professional wrestler considered making a move to the sport back in 2004, long before the likes of Brock Lesnar and CM Punk considered the change from scripted combat to the real thing.
“I was relatively still young, I think I was 34. I thought, oh well maybe UFC. Maybe I should do something like that,” Johnson said on UFC Unfiltered (via MMAFighting).
Unlike Brock Lensar, Johnson did not have a martial arts background to fall back on and would’ve had to start from scratch at 34 years old.
“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… the idea kind of fizzled out and I continued to stay on the path of movie making.”
It appears as if Johnson made the right move to stick it out in Hollywood. After hitting a rough patch from 2004 – 2010, The Rock went on to star in several blockbuster movies. He became the top grossing actor in 2013, according to Forbes, with films he starred in grossing a total of $1.3 billion worldwide.
Johnson says that he we be tuning in to UFC 200 to see his professional wrestling colleague and friend Brock Lesnar return to the cage against the “Super Samoan” Mark Hunt. Johnson says that he has tremendous respect for Lesnar, being able to succeed in both pro wrestling and MMA.
“Anybody who is successful in one area and then commits to MMA, I just feel like it’s the toughest f*cking sport in the world. I always take my hat off to those guys.”
The Rock at UFC 84 applauding Wanderlei Silva vs. Keith Jardine