There sure have been a lot of rumors floating around that Brock Lesnar is planning a return to the UFC soon, most likely to take on current light heavyweight champ and GOAT contender Jon Jones. But how much of these stories can you attribute to legitimate sources versus the insane echo chamber of online news? That’s somewhat unclear, but there’s definitely something going on with Lesnar himself fanning the flames of a Jones rivalry with multiple comments to the Associated Press.
Add onto that this article from Sports Illustrated that doesn’t mince words about the possibility of Lesnar trading the squared circle for the Octagon:
SI.com has learned that Lesnar’s return to the UFC is imminent, and he will fight Jones as well as fulfill his WWE obligations at the Royal Rumble and WrestleMania 34. This all affects the upcoming SummerSlam, as the likelihood that Lesnar keeps the WWE Universal championship, or takes any punishing moves, is all but dimmed, which is another reason he will be hidden in this Fatal 4-Way with Braun Strowman, Roman Reigns, and Samoa Joe.
‘Imminent’ is a pretty strong word, and a bit confusing considering Lesnar will have to spend six months in the USADA drug testing pool in order to fight in the UFC again. If he re-enters this week, he’ll be eligible to fight at the start of February. Meanwhile, the Royal Rumble is on January 28th and WrestleMania on April 8th, which seems like awful timing to us. But if he doesn’t fight before those events, he’ll need a solid two month training camp to take on Jones, pushing a potential superfight between the two to the start of summer at the earliest.
Another possibility is that Lesnar is already in the USADA testing pool, but that fact is being hidden. We’ve got the UFC’s drug testing liaison saying Brock isn’t being tested, but maybe he doesn’t know somehow or the UFC is once again using any means necessary to keep his return a secret until they’re ready to reveal it. That’d be pretty crazy, but some connected people on Twitter are saying it may just be that way.
Potential unfortunate scheduling issues aside, it sounds like a UFC return is indeed likely. Then again, Lesnar’s WWE contract is set to expire in April of 2017. The last time that happened there was a ton of UFC hoopla as well, followed by Brock getting a big pay raise to stay in the WWE. This whole thing could just be a similar play … which honestly, sounds like a smarter play than agreeing to fight the notoriously violent Jon Jones.
