Daniel Cormier made history on Saturday night, knocking out Stipe Miocic in the first round of their bout to become the second person in UFC history to hold championships in two weight classes at the same time. Right after Cormier’s victory, Brock Lesnar made his way into the octagon, setting up a showdown between the pair.
The immediate aftermath, though, led to plenty of people wondering if we’ll get this fight as soon as possible. It also led to people wondering what “as soon as possible” actually is — reports indicated the fight between the two will go down in November at Madison Square Garden, but due to questions about whether Lesnar can get cleared to fight in time, that seemed to be a bit ambitious.
The bad news is a November showdown in New York City isn’t going to happen, but the good news is we finally received clarity on when Lesnar will be eligible to fight. According to a statement released by the United States Anti-Doping Agency, Lesnar is free to compete starting on Jan. 8, 2019.
“After receiving notice of his intent to compete in the UFC, USADA re-entered Brock Lesnar to the testing pool on July 3,” the statement read, per MMAFighting.com. “With six months and four days remaining on his period of ineligibility, Lesnar will be able to compete on or after January 8, 2019, should he remain in compliance with the UFC Anti-Doping Policy.”
There’s no word on how this would impact a potential matchup between the two, or if Cormier would have a fight before getting into the octagon with Lesnar. There’s also no word on what this arrangement means for Lesnar’s future with WWE, although it was reported earlier this year that he’d get the chance to fight whomever won the Cormier-Miocic fight while still under contract with the promotion.
