Dana White has been teasing big things for 2018, which is the UFC’s 25th anniversary year. We’ve already got Stipe Miocic fighting Daniel Cormier in a superfight of all superfights, but now a Brock Lesnar return looms in the distance. Not only did White meet with the former UFC heavyweight champion, but Michael Bisping now is certain that he’ll fight in the UFC. He even knows the opponent and texted it to his host Luis Gomez, who proceeded to freak out.
“Brock Lesnar is definitely, definitely, definitely, definitely gonna fight in the UFC. I’m telling you right now, Brock Lesnar will fight in the UFC and I’m hearing — in fact I’m not going to say it. I don’t want to do an Ariel Helwani. But yeah, I’m hearing that he’s fighting in the UFC. I don’t know who. I don’t know that he’s definitely signing, but I’m aware of a potential fight. Somebody wants to fight him, that’s what I’m aware of.” – Michael Bisping speaking on his Believe You Me podcast.
— Dana White (@danawhite) February 26, 2018
It seems like it’s not a matter of if, but a matter of when Brock Lesnar will return. His contract is up this April, but he’s supposedly is tied up in red tape until August. Even then, he’ll have to commit to six months of USADA testing before stepping foot in an Octagon. There’s a blurry area on whether his suspension is up from last Summer, or if it was paused from his retirement, but either way he’d only have six months left to serve, so he can return at the same time regardless.
Let’s say Lesnar is able to get this all done and fight at the beginning of 2019 just to be generous, could he get the winner of Daniel Cormier and Stipe Miocic’s superfight at UFC 226? Or would his opponent depend on when Jon Jones can come back? We also know Francis Ngannou has wanted to fight Lesnar, so there is definitely no shortage of opponents for the big man.
This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 2/28/2018.