Justin McCully revealed on “Inside MMA” — a program that is featured on the HDNet network — that he is in discussions to fight Brock Lesnar next in a heavyweight bout.
Nothing is official at this time.
McCully is a member of the Team Punishment training camp with one fight inside the Octagon to his credit — a unanimous decision win over Antoni Hardonk at UFC Fight Night 9 in April 2007.
“The Insane One” is a Brazilian jiu-jitsu blackbelt under Allan Goes. He was contacted about fighting Cheick Kongo at UFC 82: “Pride of a Champion” earlier in the year; however, McCully reportedly did not respond in time (he was in Iraq on a USO tour with chum Tito Ortiz) and the bout was offered to Heath Herring.
Lesnar is a former collegiate wrestling champion and former WWE professional wrestling superstar. He made his high profile Octagon debut against Frank Mir, losing the contest in 90 seconds via submission after coming out strong.
For the past month Lesnar has been rumored to be on the UFC 85 fight card, which is penciled in to take place at the O2 Arena in London, England on June 7.
Mir is a much more talented fighter than McCully, but it’s a bit odd that the UFC — if the statement is legit — would risk putting Lesnar back in the cage against another submission specialist.
In addition, it begs the question: Would a fight like this be marketable? McCully is not that well known among the masses, having competed in mixed martial arts bouts just five times since 2000.
It sounds like a very big risk and very little reward for a man (Lesnar) who more than likely is responsible for selling the majority of the estimated 650,000 PPV buys at UFC 81: “Breaking Point.”
Let’s see how this situation unfolds. We’ll of course be on top of it every step of the way. Stay tuned.
(Thanks to MMAmania.com reader “Carlos” for the assist.)
38 Comments »
I dont remember seeing a report that there was 650,000 PPV buys. I’d like to know these things!
justins not as skilled as mir, i think lesnar would take this one…
[quote comment=”324657″]I dont remember seeing a report that there was 650,000 PPV buys. I’d like to know these things![/quote]
Dave Meltzer passed it along. PPV buys are something that the UFC keeps close to the vest, therefore it’s difficult to ensure their accuracy.
I thought McCully looked unimpressive against Hardonk, even though he pulled out a win. I really didn’t view him as a submission specialist. A black belt bjj is a surprise. It’d be a sure win for Lesnar in my opinion.
McCully by SUB!
mccully has ALOT of work to do to impress me. his fight against hardonk was so boring i was actually pissed off. that fight has to be one of the worst ever televised mma bouts in mma history. maybe i’m being dramatic, but i recall that fight sucked massively. the ufc is really giving this dude a big chance at redeeming his boring ass self.
[quote comment=”324671″]I thought McCully looked unimpressive against Hardonk, even though he pulled out a win. I really didn’t view him as a submission specialist. A black belt bjj is a surprise. It’d be a sure win for Lesnar in my opinion.[/quote]
Agree, I predict Lesnar gets the win via Justin dies.
Not a bad person to have have fight Brock, but I still think Eddie Sanchez is a better opponent. Bigger name and a better opportunity to show off the GNP.
[quote comment=”324661″]justins not as skilled as mir, i think lesnar would take this one…[/quote]
i think the fight would b the exact same as mir vs lesnar it would play out the exact same
Lesnar needs to fight tough opponents, he is a tough opponent. I don’t like this matchup, I don’t like the Eddie Sanchez matchup either. Brock would be a heavy betting favorite in both of those fights and I don’t really see the point in watching him run over them. Neither of those fights would be something to look forward to, I’d much rather see Brock fight Jake O’Brien if he can get past Arlovski, or a match against Gonzaga would be good. Kongo or Herring might also be good choices, depending on what happens in their fight. There should be a good chance that Brock will lose, otherwise the fight will not be nearly as big a draw. I still say Brock can beat Tim Sylvia and if Sylvia isn’t fighting Mir next, he should be fighting Brock.
this would be a massacre..
go brock!
is lesnar done if he loses this in another 1st rounder to a non top 10 ? …i think so
Hmmm, I don’t see why they wouldn’t put him against a striker. McCully isn’t a big name, yet he could potentially beat Lesnar the same way Mir did. It wouldn’t look good at all.
At least if it’s a striker, it will be a more exciting fight; and I think Lesnar would have a better shot at winning.
this probably should have been brocks first fight, i think this one is gonna be bad for justin
They should give him a different style this time, they need to build him. If he loses this then what? Not a good choice in my opinion.
I dont know why every one is so worried about Justin McCully, I think he is a very beatable opponent for Lesner to rack up a win against.
Personally, I would rather see Brock rip Eddie Sanchez’s face apart, because I really dont like that dude…The manic-Hispanic/…..Get the F outta here!
Whoever they match Brock up against, it is imperative that Brock wins his next match.
Lesnar by KO of the night.
I think it would be a bad fight i would not be happy to see it Brock needs to fight peopl who have a name you dont pay 250 000 to fight a no name guy its not worth it i think it should have been him vs. vera that would be a good fight but he needs to fight a striker it would be more action and better to watch i agree with the sanchez fight
McCully couldnt submit Hardonk. Hes not going to submit Lesnar. Brock is too big and too strong. Lesnar by TKO 1st round.
Damnit, I want to see him fight Eddie Sanchez. Maybe after this fight.
If lesnar takes this and loses - hes finished as an mma fighter - you cant say you gonna be the next big thing and lose 2 in a row in the first 3 fights of your career - besides, he should go to another organisation anyway, he doesnt fit in - in the ufc. all the top dogs will leave soon and so should he - if he ever became the ufc champ, it will be when AA, Vera, Randy, Mir and the rest of em’ leave.
This is a perfect fight for Lesnar and should have been his first opponent. McCully is only good enough to maybe be a gatekeeper for the gatekeepers. You know, beat McCully and you can qualify as a can for our next HW superstar. Lesnar will do to McCully exactly what he was doing to Mir right up until he got caught, only McCully won’t catch him. He’ll just go night-night.
I’d like to see Brock and Vera go at it. The hell with McWho? Let’s get Brosner in there to fight some real fighters. Hell, I wouldn’t even mind a Lesnar/Sylvia fight. No JiuJitsu there!
IT’S THIS SIMPLE:
Justin McCully was specifically selected by the UFC to loose against Lesnar.
Why?
Because the UFC has invested a crap load of money into Lesnar, and they need to ensure he gets the next win. So they feed Lesnar a lame bum like Justin McCully, instead of someone like Brandon Vera.
Insain - Go back and look at the records of some of the biggest names in MMA. Lesnar is not finished as an MMA fighter even if he loses two in a row.
I’ll say this: if Lesnar loses, you KNOW the UFC wants to keep him anyway. Why? Because on the open market Brock Lesnar would be the biggest ticket in MMA. Imagine EliteXC grabbing Lesnar. Do you think the UFC wants that to happen? They’ve made an invenstment, and I suspect they will keep their man. He may move down to the undercard if he loses, but he won’t be gone.
Watching his fight with Frank Mir, it was obvious that the guy came into the octagon to decapitate Frank Mir. And he came damn close. If he left the UFC, I could easily see a bidding war. Lesnar isn’t going anywhere.
Lesnar by TKO.
[quote comment=”324981″]is lesnar done if he loses this in another 1st rounder to a non top 10 ? …i think so[/quote]
If Mir isn’t top 10 in the UFC, please name 9 guys that are better than him.
Sal “The Muckraker” Costello - Do I detect disdain on your writing?
For a guy at Lesnar’s experience level, whom do you think he should fight? Realistically, Kimbo Slice is getting opponents who are at his skill-level and/or experience-level. Kimbo is getting the “appropriate” opponents, relatively speaking. It was bordering on insanity to begin with that Brock Lesnar should agree to fight Frank Mir, don’t you think? What other 1-0 MMA fighters decides to fight a former champion and submission specialist who is still in his prime? It was lunacy… or was it? Lesnar almost destroyed Frank Mir. But almost isn’t good enough, though his “almost” was good enough to make him an instant fixture.
The point is: the UFC should be giving the guy more appropriate opponents. It just so happens that those more appropriate opponents (skills-wise or experience-wise) will probably be destroyed in the first round by this hulk.
is this even a serious bout to come? I really dont know who is in charge of putting fight together for the UFC but putting a no name heavy weight against brock lesnar? Apparently the UFC dosent care to much about mccully because brock is going to kick the crap out of him. Must be a whole campaign to rid the UFC of team punishment
If mculleys fighting career doesnt pan out he could definitely be an mma analyst very knowledgeable and did a great job on the show.
paco, I agree his next fight should be against T sylvia. The UFC could sell that as a main event for a card. Lesner wont have any fear of being submitted so he go just go all out on tim. I would love to see brock throw tim all around the octogon. And by beating a former ufc champpion this way he will be considered a ligitimate contender and automattically put him in the top 10 HW ranking. Beating mccully will do next to nothing for his career other than getting some experience
Didn’t Brock learn his lesson the first time. he needs to stay away from the BJJ guys.
if you guys seriously think mccully is a good submission guy your crazy. if you watched the mccully hardonk fight mccully couldnt stand with him at all and he had to resort to laying on him for 15 minutes in hardonks full guard. Shoot Hardonk even got close to submitting him. There is no way mccully could sub lesnar like mir did. i say lesnar by gnp or ud.
[quote comment=”325449″]if you guys seriously think mccully is a good submission guy your crazy. if you watched the mccully hardonk fight mccully couldnt stand with him at all and he had to resort to laying on him for 15 minutes in hardonks full guard. Shoot Hardonk even got close to submitting him. There is no way mccully could sub lesnar like mir did. i say lesnar by gnp or ud.[/quote]
Seriously. McCully had better have a much better BJJ game from the bottom than he had from the top or he’s in serious trouble. I think Brock would destroy him.
“Agree, I predict Lesnar gets the win via Justin dies.”
LOL, good one Anomaly, one of the best/funniest comments I have ever heard on him.
I take Brock all the way: TKO, due to vicious GnP, within 2.5 minutes of “the very first round”.
this fight is a joke i didn’t like lesnar in his first fight in the ufc. 4 crying out loud he was almost out of it but he made things worse when he tapped out. foot on the ass and push. lesnar maybe big but he has no brains. so now there going 2 give him a push over fight. i thought u said he would b fighting real fighters. like always DANA LIES
[quote comment=”325939″]”Agree, I predict Lesnar gets the win via Justin dies.”
LOL, good one Anomaly, one of the best/funniest comments I have ever heard on him.
I take Brock all the way: TKO, due to vicious GnP, within 2.5 minutes of “the very first round”.[/quote]
if u put justin in frank’s place justin would have been knocked out.