The Undertaker Explains Why He Never Fought in MMA
In a 2025 radio interview, The Undertaker said he might have tried the MMA waters if he had an amateur wrestling background. He also described family responsibilities and uncertainty about how he would fare.
Mark Calaway, known to wrestling fans as The Undertaker, has long followed mixed martial arts. His own account of a possible move into the sport is more conditional than the original story suggested: he did not say he had a plan to leave WWE, nor did he describe negotiations with the UFC. He was asked about the possibility on Busted Open Radio in February 2025, and said that if he had an amateur wrestling base, there was a good chance he would have tested those waters. Fightful’s report includes his comments and the surrounding context.
An interest, with a clear condition
Calaway said UFC was growing and that he had always liked testing himself. He recalled boxing a little as a teenager, then explained that without an amateur wrestling background he did not have the foundation he would have wanted. He also acknowledged that he might have been badly beaten. Those remarks describe curiosity, not confidence that he could become a contender. His conditional phrasing is central to the interview: a different athletic background might have made him consider trying the sport, but it does not mean he was preparing to do so.
He also pointed to the pressure he was under at the time and the responsibility of having a family. Starting in a new sport would have meant learning its skills while sustaining the career and income he already had. The simplest account is the one he gave: without the amateur wrestling base, and with his family depending on him, the idea remained hypothetical.
The Brock Lesnar moment was a wrestling angle
Calaway’s best-known connection to the UFC came years later, at UFC 121 in October 2010. After Brock Lesnar lost the heavyweight title to Cain Velasquez, Calaway was interviewed cageside and exchanged a brief challenge with Lesnar. The moment looked like a possible fight announcement, but it was part of WWE’s promotion of their wrestling rivalry, not a UFC booking for Calaway. MMA Fighting’s event interview captured the exchange, and UFC’s event record lists the actual title fight.
That distinction matters because the real story is compelling without turning a televised tease into an MMA near-miss. Calaway respected the challenge of combat sports and wondered aloud about how he might have fared under different circumstances. He never entered the UFC as a fighter. His 2025 comments offer a rare first-person explanation of what held him back: not a formal rejection of MMA or a stated fear of injury, but the lack of an amateur wrestling foundation, uncertainty about the outcome, and the obligations he already carried.
