Triple H addresses possible crossovers between UFC and WWE; Logan Paul volunteers to fight

With UFC and WWE now operating under the same umbrella as TKO Group Holdings, it’s impossible to avoid questions about the two organizations promoting some sort of crossover event.

Michael Chandler recently appeared on an episode of Monday Night Raw to call out Conor McGregor. Weeks later, Rey Mysterio Jr. helped hype up the UFC Mexico City card and attended as a guest of the promotion. But Paul “Triple H” Levesque, WWE’s chief content officer and current head of creative, doesn’t really see more of a talent exchange happening any time soon.

“I don’t know. That sport is so difficult,” Levesque said on Logan Paul’s Impaulsive podcast. “Even there’s some guys that work for us that have strong amateur backgrounds, amateur wrestling, Chad Gable or whatever, but that’s a whole different world when somebody starts punching and kicking at you too.

“There’s so many factors to that, so [it’d be difficult] for me to say, ‘I think this person from our world would do good because they seem like they’re tough.’”

It didn’t take long for Paul to raise his hand to volunteer as a WWE superstar who could potentially cross over to the UFC.

Paul has hinted at possibly fighting for several years, especially after boxing against names like Floyd Mayweather and Dillon Danis. He also comes from a wrestling background, where he placed fifth in the state in his native Ohio during his senior year at Westlake High.

“Send me,” Paul said. “I wrestled. I wrestle now. I would do it. I would totally do it. For the right dance partner, yeah, I would love to do a UFC fight. Now that you guys are partners, I think at the right time, it could make a lot of sense.”

As enticing as that offer may be, Levesque didn’t seem all that interested in sending his performers to the UFC any more than UFC CEO Dana White wants to sacrifice one of the top names from his roster to go take a stab at WWE.

Despite the business relationship UFC and WWE now share, Levesque knows the two companies are still miles apart as far as what they actually do and promote.

“While there’s similarities to what we do because it’s combat-centric, we couldn’t be any more different,” Levesque explained. “I remember having a conversation with Dana a long time ago. We were at the ESPYs on the red carpet and [UFC] had just done the China Performance Institute, they just made this massive investment there. It had just come out and we were talking, I said, ‘Hey, congratulations on the China stuff.’ He was like, ‘Yeah, I know it’s an awesome time right now. I just have to get the Chinese girl to win on Saturday,’ because they had a pay-per-view. He’s like, ‘If she wins, it’s awesome. If she doesn’t, it’s like I’m doomed.’ I was like, that’s the beauty of what we do — I know she wins in our sport!

“It’s different. There’s such a difference in what we do. It’s hard to blend the two, except for when it works. But they almost have to be separate. Like Brock [Lesnar] wasn’t actively fighting while he was [in WWE] doing this. I think you sort of have to be all-in on one or the other. Tough to do both.”

So it seems highly unlikely that Jon Jones will march down to the ring to challenge Cody Rhodes any time soon. It’s also rather doubtful that Roman Reigns will attempt to assert himself into the UFC heavyweight title picture.

That being said, Levesque promised there are still going to be opportunities for UFC and WWE to work together, just not how some fans might think when the word crossover gets tossed in the conversation.

“I think that’s all on the table to do, but their athletes are pretty busy, ours are pretty busy,” Levesque said. “Like Chandler coming on ours or Rey Mysterio was at a fight a little while ago for UFC and did some stuff with them, I think you’ll see stuff like that.

“I think you’ll also see us going into markets with combined events. So maybe it’s a Friday and there’s a Smackdown, and then Saturday there’s a UFC fight, and then Sunday there’s something WWE. Where you go into a region and just sort of take over. So we’re looking at experiences like that and different ways to combine the two.”