One of the biggest stories in all of sports in 2016 (but particularly in combat sports) was Brock Lesnar‘s sudden return to MMA from retirement. The former UFC Heavyweight Champion fought for the first time in years at UFC 200, and emerged victorious in a lopsided fight against Mark Hunt, and he did so while being under contract to WWE.
But of course, that was far from the whole story. Much was made of Lesnar receiving a special exemption from the USADA to return to fighting on short notice — normally, fighters are required to undergo months of drug testing before returning from official retirement. Although he was drug tested a slew of times between the announcement of his return and his fight, the USADA may have been aware of a failed drug test prior to his fight, and following his win, he failed both an in-competition and out of competition test as he tested positive for banned substances.
After a lengthy investigation process, Lesnar was fined and suspended from MMA for one year, and his win at UFC 200 was stripped from him. That suspension is now on hold, because it looks like Lesnar is once again calling it quits from cage fighting.
MMA Fighting reported on Tuesday that according to a UFC spokesperson, Lesnar has notified the company of his retirement. Again. If he wishes to return to the drug testing pool in anticipation of fighting again, he will still serve five more months on his suspension from the time he begins being drug tested by the USADA again.
It was unlikely Lesnar was going to fight again in the first place. Now it seems like an extremely long shot. Few people have ever enjoyed being hit in the face less than Brock Lesnar, and he has been getting nothing but easy paydays for the last few years. He’ll almost certainly stick with his light WWE schedule until he finally retires from athletics for good.
