UFC president Dana White was a guest on UFC Tonight on Wednesday and stated that Brock Lesnar will return to the UFC.
White said, “Yeah, Brock Lesnar is coming back. I don’t when, but yes he is coming back.”
MMA Fighting’s Ariel Helwani added that there is substance to White’s statement and a deal is said to be in place for the 40-year old heavyweight, but it still needs to be finalized.
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Lesnar’s current deal with World Wrestling Entertainment is expected to come to an end following this Sunday’s match with Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 34, although the timing of when Lesnar could fight is still unknown. This current deal was signed by Lesnar is March 2015 and was announced on ESPN following negotiations Lesnar had with the WWE and UFC at the time.
Despite his contract with WWE, a deal was worked out for Lesnar to compete against Mark Hunt at UFC 200 in July 2016 and in exchange, the UFC aired a commercial for SummerSlam on the UFC 200 pay-per-view as part of the deal. Lesnar’s listed purse for the bout was $2.5 million.
In addition, Lesnar failed two drug tests with an out-of-competition test administered on June 28th and a test on the night of the fight with both returning positive for clomiphene and hydroxy-clomiphene.
Lesnar was fined $250,000, suspended for one-year and his win over Hunt was changed to a no contest.
Lesnar retired in February 2017 and his one-year suspension from USADA was frozen, which would require Lesnar to serve the remaining months of the suspension before receiving clearance to fight in the UFC.
