Paul Heyman: 'Brock Lesnar fought at 50% in the UFC'

By now, just about every fight fan knows that former UFC heavyweight champ Brock Lesnar battled (and nearly died from) diverticulitis throughout his brief but sensational MMA career. However, Lesnar's friend Paul Heyman recently told Ariel Helwani that the fighter's condition was worse than many realized.

"Brock wasn't healthy," Heyman said.

"I don't think Brock has truly understood nor accepted the severity of the illness that took him down. They did blood work on Brock and they found out he wasn't healthy for many, many years. His body was fighting this affliction off and using so much of his energy.

"He was handicapped the entire time. His body is so freakish, he was fighting this thing off and he had enough energy to do those other things while sick.

"The Brock Lesnar who stepped into the cage with Alistair Overeem, he was at 50, 75 percent. You're going to fight Alistair Overeem at 75 percent, Cain Velasquez at 75 percent. He fought Shane Carwin at 75, or 60, or 80 percent, but even at 95 percent against Shane Carwin, you're at a disadvantage."

Since retiring from MMA competition, Lesnar has returned to the WWE and pro wrestling. Although Heyman didn't rule out a future return to the Octagon for the former NCAA national champion wrestler, he did say that the star is happy with his cushy wrasslin' deal, at present.

"I think he's very, very happy right now with what we're doing in WWE," said Heyman.

"It's [making an MMA come back] not a subject he has to think about. If the deal ends up over in WWE, if a change of circumstances happens, and if it's a no-brainer to get him back into the cage, I'm sure it's something he'd consider. Right now, it's not a topic of conversation. Why would you mess up the WWE deal?"

How much better and longer do you think Lesnar could have fought if he were healthy during his UFC stint? Let us know in the comments section!

 Follow Elias on Twitter @EliasCepeda & @YahooCagewriter

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