WWE superstar and former UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar was expected to return to the Octagon later this year to fight current UFC heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier.
Lesnar had teased a return to the UFC in 2018 after he cut a promo in the Octagon pushing Daniel Cormier and getting tongues wagging of a possible fight.
For the last 6 months, UFC President Dana White has had to deal with one common question and that is when will Brock Lesnar return to the Octagon to fight Daniel Cormier. White’s standard response was that Brock Lesnar would call him when he is good and ready to fight.
White told media this week that Lesnar wasn’t going to fight in the Octagon again as he had informed him that he was pulling the curtain on his UFC career and retiring from the sport. Lesnar’s last fight in the UFC was back in July 2016 at UFC200 when he fought Australian legend Mark Hunt and came out with a win.
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Lesnar spends most of his time in the WWE where he has a massive fan following. However, after he dropped his belt to Seth Rollins, there was speculation that he was planning a return to the UFC. Now that Brock Lesnar has been ruled out, the UFC will move forward with finding a new opponent for Cormier.
Daniel Cormier pushed back his retirement this year because he wanted to fight Lesnar as that was a guaranteed huge payday for him. With that fight out of the window, Cormier will most likely have to fight former champ Stipe Miocic whom he defeated at UFC226 to win the belt.
Miocic has not fought after losing to Cormier even though the UFC has offered him various opponents. He has called for the rematch from day 1 and it looks like his waiting will pay him dividends. The UFC has plans to book Cormier vs. Miocic for its Anaheim, California card which is scheduled to take place in August 2019.
There is no doubt that Daniel Cormier will be disappointed with Brock Lesnar retiring and leaving him out in the cold. A rematch with Miocic will generate attention but nowhere near the attention and revenue that a fight with a superstar like Brock Lesnar would. Cormier is yet to share his views on Lesnar’s retirement and a potential rematch with Miocic.
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