[MMA]: Stephen Neal sta considerando le MMA?

Conversations about Brock Lesnar occasionally drop in the name of Stephen Neal. Neal, a 6-foot-4, 305 lb. New England Patriots guard, was a two-time NCAA Division I champ who once beat Lesnar for that title in 1999. His MMA participation has been a what-if proposition. At 33, he flirts with middle age in combat sports.

But maybe Neal himself doesn’t think so: in an interview with CSN.com, his agent Neil Cornrich indicated that his client had several options when his free agency begins March 5. In addition to continuing with the Patriots or another team, Cornrich said, Neal could “perhaps after that take a chance at the UFC…Getting back involved in Olympic-style wrestling is definitely a consideration."

The latter comment is odd out of context with MMA, since the market for “Olympic-style wrestling” is non-existent without the addition of strikes. Cornrich could be talking just to talk, but a 2008 Boston Herald piece mentioned Neal had trained with Tito Ortiz; Lesnar himself thinks Neal would be a natural.

Is there a market for his interest? Neal was a standout wrestler, but doesn’t share Lesnar’s WWE fame or his ability to stare down a camera crew. If he were built up as Lesnar’s doppelganger, maybe there’s a hook there. But it’s unlikely he’d command a huge starting salary. If he did it, it’d be for the love of competition -- not for anything even approaching the four-year, $10 million deal that’s about to expire with the Patriots.

Maybe that would be enough. "I'd love to [get back into wrestling]," he told USA Today in 2005. "The weight class is 263 pounds, and I'd like to get my body back down to that weight. I don't know. I might be too old by then. I might be too beat up. But it's a dream."