The door may have recently closed on CM Punk’s continued career with UFC, but another WWE star could soon be returning to the octagon.
That is, if you take UFC President Dana White‘s latest tease at face value.
Videos by PopCulture.com
“Brock’s WWE deal is up at the end of the summer I think and I know he wants to fight so I’m sure we’ll end up getting that figured out,” White recently told TMZ Sports.
The note about Lesnar’s WWE “deal” being up is interesting given the fact that Lesnar is reportedly working on a per show agreement with WWE. With that kind of a deal, he could finish up at any point when WWE decides to stop booking him or he decides to no longer take bookings.
Perhaps what White was referring to is Lesnar losing the title, likely at SummerSlam, which could wrap up any further commitments since he would no longer be carrying the Universal title.
When speaking of possible opponents for the soon to be 41 year old Lesnar in UFC, TMZ brought up the name Francis Ngannou. However, White countered with a much bigger name who has been spoken about as a Lesnar opponent in the past.
“(Ngannou)’s a fine fight, absolutely,” White said. “There’s a lot of options. Jon Jones is very interested in Brock Lesnar and Brock is very interested in Jon Jones.”
Booking a fight against Jones could prove to be problematic given the drug test failures both men have recently dealt with. News broke about Lesnar failing a drug test following his victory at UFC 200. If Lesnar were to return to MMA, he would need to re-enter the USADA drug testing pool for six months before being allowed to fight.
Jones recently failed a second drug test which could still lead to a long suspension. He was stripped of the UFC light heavyweight title due to the test failure last summer.
All of that said, White is a promoter first and foremost and he obviously realizes the dollars a Lesnar vs. Jones fight could draw. Both men are among the biggest stars in UFC history. If White can figure out a way to book the fight while also respecting the suspensions due to the drug testing failures, he most certainly will do so. He just needs to get Lesnar and Jones on board. The first step would be Lesnar re-entering the USADA drug testing pool (and losing the Universal title).
