No Brock Lesnar Mention on Raw + Lesnar vs. Cormier Betting Odds

No Lesnar Mention on Raw

WWE did not mention Brock Lesnar at all on last night’s Raw. Lesnar appeared at UFC 226 on Saturday to challenge UFC Heavyweight Champion Daniel Cormier, and Lesnar has re-entered the USADA drug testing pool, which will make him eligible to fight in the UFC again on January 8, 2019.

According to Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio, no mention of Lesnar could mean that “something’s up” and something may have changed in WWE’s relationship with Lesnar in the past week. WWE has already been using idea of Lesnar leaving to go to the UFC in their storylines, so it’s not like they’ve been trying to hide it.

Lesnar vs. Cormier Betting Odds

Daniel Cormier is favored at -200 to defeat Brock Lesnar in a theoretical UFC fight, which would mean that Cormier has an implied win probability of 66.7%.

MMA Junkie has more of an explanation:

Initially, noted MMA oddsmaker and MMAjunkie odds consultant Joey Oddessa said he planned to open “The Oddessa Line” at -200 for Cormier and +180 for Lesnar.

With those odds, a winning $100 bet on Cormier would net a profit of $50 (implied win probability of 66.7 percent). A winning $100 bet on Lesnar, meanwhile, would garner a profit of $180 (35.7 percent win probability).

So why isn’t Cormier – who’s now 14-0 at heavyweight and whose only career loss came to pound-for-pound Jon Jones – not a bigger favorite over Lesnar, who’s 0-2 (with one no-contest due to a failed drug test) in his past three fights?

“I know the public will bet Lesnar, but Cormier is the better fighter,” Oddessa told MMAjunkie.

And he’s right; as of this morning, Cormier’s line had dipped as low as -175 at a few books as money rolled in on Lesnar.