The UFC set up a big heavyweight championship fight after Daniel Cormier won the title from Stipe Miocic in the main event of UFC 226 last night (July 7, 2018) in Las Vegas, Nevada. Current WWE Universal Champion Brock Lesnar stormed the cage just after Cormier called him out following his post-fight interview with Joe Rogan.

There was some shoving, some cursing, and general grandstanding that came off a whole lot more like a pro wrestling angle than anything legitimate.

When asked about this at the post-fight press conference, Cormier doubled down on it, more or less admitting to working a pro wrestling style angle for the sake of a bigger payday:

“Hey, ‘staged, they’re idiots.’ Fine. Stay broke. You got a guy like Brock Lesnar in front of you and you don’t go crazy on him? Are you crazy? When Brock decided to step in the Octagon with me... he’s a pro wrestler, he does fake fighting. So I’ll do fake fighting with you until I put my fist upside of your face. I’ll do fake fighting with you, Brock, and then I’ll punch you upside your head. So, yeah, yeah, you guys call it fake online, I see a bunch of fighters ‘oh, it’s so fake, I don’t want to watch this.’ Tune in and keep lacing my pockets. You guys gotta get on board. These guys get on the microphone after their fights and say ‘yeah, it’s whatever the UFC decides.’ Okay.”

Later, he went so far as to say he would go to WWE to do business with Lesnar there if it’s something WWE would want:

”If they wanted me over there, I’d go over there. I’d go beat Brock in a wrestling match. Maybe they’d do us a shoot match, put us in singlets and see who wins. And I can go major decision him or something, or maybe pin him.”

The UFC broadcast closed with its commentators explaining that, yes, this is a whole lot like a WWE angle but the difference is when Lesnar and Cormier eventually meet up to fight the punches will be very real. They are now embracing the similarities between MMA and pro wrestling in a way they haven’t in many, many years, at least publicly.

The power of Lesnar.

And money.

Lots and lots of money.