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WEBSTER, S.D. (KELO) — Former WWE champion, UFC heavyweight champion, NCAA and NJCAA wrestling heavyweight national champion and Webster, South Dakota’s own, Brock Lesnar, announced his retirement from “WWE…and everything else too” on ESPN’s Pat McAfee Show on Tuesday.
Lesnar has arguably one of the greatest athletic careers of any person to compete in combat sports.
In 1998, Lesnar won the NJCAA heavyweight national championship at Bismarck State College before posting a 106-5 record in two years at the University of Minnesota capped off with the 2000 NCAA heavyweight championship in his senior year after falling in the title match the year prior.
From there, Lesnar would sign with WWE (then WWF) before making his debut in 2002 as “The Next Big Thing,” becoming the youngest WWE champion ever just a few months later at 25 years old.
After becoming a marquee act in the WWE, Lesnar gave professional football a shot and despite not having any college football experience, he nearly made the Minnesota Vikings 53-man roster in 2004 as a defensive lineman, before being one of the final players cut.
Lesnar then took a trip to Japan and won the New Japan Pro Wrestling IWGP Heavyweight championship in 2005 before returning to the US to begin his mixed martial arts career.
In 2008, Lesnar joined the UFC and in his third fight in the company, he won the Heavyweight championship after knocking out Randy Couture in the second round.
He would successfully defend his title against Frank Mir in 2009, winning by KO in the second round, before tapping out Shane Carwin in July 2010 for a second consecutive defense.
Lesnar would lose the title in his next fight against Cain Velasquez after being knocked out in the first round. He would only compete in two more UFC fights after that, ending with a career record of 5-3-0.
In 2012, Lesnar returned to WWE and over the next 12 years, “The Beast Incarnate” garnered numerous accolades including: ending the Undertaker’s WrestleMania streak at 21-0, holding the Universal title for a record 504 days, competing in the main event of WrestleMania five different times and holding a grand total of 10 WWE heavyweight championships.
Lesnar’s last WWE match was Saturday night at SummerSlam in Minneapolis, the home of his Minnesota Gophers, where he was defeated by Oba Femi.
“I was just a farm kid from South Dakota with a big dream, a big heart and a big chip on my shoulder,” Lesnar said on the McAfee Show. “I’m just grateful to be 49 years old and have been able to do what I did in this lifetime. I thank God and everybody that supported me.
“I want to say to the little kids, I was a little farm kid with a bunch of lint in my pocket. I had big dreams and I just worked. I think a lot of people with social media platforms see athletes doing things and they leave out the hard work. If kids just stay focused on work and putting time in, good things will happen.”
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