The Province

Crossing over is now commonplac­e

Lesnar the most noteworthy athlete to successful­ly transition from the Octagon to the wrestling ring

- DAN GELSTON

Jon Jones has teased about making an appearance at WWE’s SummerSlam event to stir things up in his quest for a mega fight with Brock Lesnar.

Lesnar might have had trouble keeping an eye on Jones if the UFC star grabbed a seat in the front row. The WWE universal champion had a title defence against three wrestlers in a Fatal 4-Way main event Sunday night at New York’s Barclays Center.

With a loss, Lesnar could have more free time to hype a potential fight versus Jones — the match stipulates he will leave WWE if he loses the championsh­ip.

OK, Lesnar isn’t going anywhere. He’s WWE’s No. 1 drawing card.

But the pay-per-view provision only fuelled speculatio­n among fight fans that Lesnar could jump ship and return to UFC for a showdown against Jones. Jones called out Lesnar immediatel­y after winning the light-heavyweigh­t championsh­ip last month. Lesnar warned Jones, “Be careful what you wish for, young man.”

Lesnar reigned as heavyweigh­t champion in his first stint at UFC and easily became the most successful crossover fighter from pro wrestling to mixed martial arts.

Lesnar’s not the only spandexed warrior who has stepped inside both the squared circle and the Octagon. Some notables:

■ CM Punk was a one-round flop when the former WWE champion made the move to UFC;

■ Ken Shamrock ruled as “The World’s Most Dangerous Man” in the early days of UFC before he wrestled future Hollywood star The Rock at WrestleMan­ia;

■ Bobby Lashley is trying to master both worlds, currently competing as a heavyweigh­t for both Bellator and Global Force Wrestling;

■ Ronda Rousey stood side by side with The Rock at WrestleMan­ia and was recently spotted at a WWE-backed women’s wrestling tournament. Could the one-time face of UFC find herself competing in the faux fighting world of WWE?

■ WWE star Becky Lynch and UFC champion Cristiane ‘Cyborg’ Justino had a social media “feud” to push a potential SummerSlam bout;

■ Dan “The Beast” Severn, Tank Abbott, Rampage Jackson and Dave Batista have all had mixed success trying to mesh triangle chokes and ankle locks with drop-kicks and piledriver­s.

Shamrock was a key cog in UFC’s formative years, fighting to a 36-minute draw at UFC 5 on April 7, 1995, and made the jump during WWE’s zenith in “The Attitude Era.”

“It’s difficult to go from a career where you’re kicking tail and going out and dominating people and then all of a sudden you have people telling you you’re going to lay down in this fight,” he said. “That was the most difficult part for most athletes crossing over. You have to put yourself in a vulnerable situation and make people think you’re hurt. We were so programmed in our pride to not let people know you’re hurt.”

Shamrock at times found the scripted outcomes almost as tough to swallow as the dog food “The British Bulldog” Davey Boy Smith shoved into his mouth at SummerSlam in 1997.

In the ’90s, UFC had yet to gain the mainstream credibilit­y the sport has today and Shamrock entered a sports entertainm­ent world where he knew none of the wrestlers legitimate­ly wanted to mess with him. But they were curious if Shamrock could change from martial artist master to entertaine­r — and he did. Shamrock kept many of the traits that made him a star in UFC — in the WWE he was known for suffering “internal bleeding” rather than quitting.

“I was a world champion. There was nobody in the world that could beat me,” Shamrock said. “When I first went there, there were a lot of people that were very upset that I would go there and do something like that. But if it wasn’t for the fact that I crossed over, we might not be talking about the UFC or the WWE as we talk about them now.”

Rousey made millions under contract at UFC and can make a bigger splash now working for WWE. Rousey, one of the more celebrated athletes in the world, has kept a low profile since her unbeaten streak came to a thud with two straight losses that put her UFC career in doubt. She’s coaching D-list celebritie­s on Battle of the Network Stars and was a guest of WWE executive Triple H at a taping last month of the Mae Young Classic.

“Ronda Rousey for me is a WrestleMan­ia attraction,” veteran WWE announcer Jim Ross said. “I think she’s a big enough star to wrestle perhaps Charlotte or whomever. There’s a lot of ways to market Ronda Rousey.”

 ?? — GETTY IMAGES FILES ?? Jon Jones, right, is angling for a fight with former UFC heavyweigh­t champion Brock Lesnar, who has returned to his roots in the pro wrestling world.
— GETTY IMAGES FILES Jon Jones, right, is angling for a fight with former UFC heavyweigh­t champion Brock Lesnar, who has returned to his roots in the pro wrestling world.

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