“We both probably should have been more aggressive,” Lesnar said. “It would have been a better battle, but in the end, he was the better man and he beat me. He went on to do great things and in a three-month period was an NCAA champ, a U.S. Open champ, and a world champ. He was no slouch, that’s for sure.”

The two viewed the match a little differently. For Neal, it was a step on the way to bigger things. For Lesnar, it provided motivation to come back as a senior in 2000 and win an NCAA title of his own.

“Not to take anything away from Brock, but I wouldn’t say that match was the highlight of my career,” Neal said. “Later that year I won the world championships. That was probably the highlight.”

Neal finished his college career with a record of 151-10. Lesnar won the 2000 heavyweight title and graduated with a record of 106-5.

Then their paths diverged. Neal joined the Patriots as an undrafted free agent in 2001 and started in a Super Bowl three years later.

Lesnar joined the WWF in 2002 and rose to fame as “The Next Big Thing,” earning a seven-year, $45 million contract and worldwide fame. But something was missing.

“I went in the entertainment business and that’s all it really was, just entertainment,” Lesnar said. “But the competitiveness didn’t leave my body like I thought it would.”

So in 2004, after a nine-year absence from football, Lesnar attended Vikings training camp as a defensive lineman. He was raw and unpolished, but at 6-3, 290 pounds, also insanely strong and athletic.

He improbably survived until final cuts. The Vikings wanted him to play in NFL Europe, but Lesnar was distracted by a lawsuit with the WWE and quit.

“When I got cut I was kind of relieved and disappointed at the same time,” Lesnar said. “I just wasn’t feeling it in my gut anymore. I had other things on my mind, and you get tossed around on the football field a little bit, you get humbled pretty quickly.”

Neal believes Lesnar would have become an NFL player with a little more time.

“If he had gotten the opportunity that I had, for three years or something, he could have made the transition,” Neal said. “There’s no question he could have made it.”

Lesnar instead focused his competitiveness on the UFC, debuting in February against former heavyweight champ Frank Mir and taking control of the action before getting caught in a kneebar and submitting.

Lesnar fought his way back to a title shot from there and pummeled Couture to win by TKO in the second round. His next bout will be against the winner of Mir and Antonio Nogueira to unify the heavyweight crown.