Brock Lesnar Likely to Jump From WWE Back to UFC

In just a little more than one month, Brock Lesnar is supposed to defend the WWE Universal Title against Roman Reigns at Wrestlemania 34in New Orleans. But earlier this week, while WWE was hosting its Elimination Chamberpay-per-view in Las Vegas, its champion was photographed with UFC president Dana White. Then on Tuesday, White was being interviewed Kevin Harvick on his SiriusXM show, and when asked what the chances were that Lesnar would return to the cage, White said that they were “very, very, very good.”

Lesnar’s contract with WWE reportedly expires not long after WrestleMania.

There are hurdles for Lesnar if he wants to return to the UFC, which could indicate that Sunday’s photo-op with White and his apparent no-show of Monday Night Raw— we’ll get to that in a minute — was nothing more than a negotiating ploy.

Lesnar would have to re-enter the USADA’s Drug Testing Protocal for a UFC return, and that would also mean he would have to serve the last six months of his suspension. Lesnar was suspended by the USADA for testing positive for banned substances following his fight with Mark Hunt at UFC 200.

Even if Lesnar re-entered the program today, he wouldn’t be able to fight for the UFC until August at the earliest.

Now, let’s get to what happened on Monday’s Raw. Everyone saw Roman Reigns cut a scathing promo on Lesnar, talking about how he doesn’t really care about the WWE and Reigns was on the road every week.

According to PWInsider.com, the original Rawscripted called for a lengthy back-and-forth promo segment between Reigns and Lesnar, but it’s believed that Lesnar was never at the building on Monday night. 

Why not?

Quite frankly, it could be just another wrestling angle. Lesnar was told to stay away from Raw so that people bought into the Reigns promo and believe there to be a legitimate beef between the two. Or, Lesnar could have no-showed, again in a negotiating ploy with WWE for more money in his next contract. 

Regardless, this will be one of the most-talked about storylines heading into WrestleManiathis April. It’s all but guaranteed that Reigns will beat Lesnar and become the Universal Champion at the show, especially if Lesnar is on his way out the door for a return to the UFC. But if WWE and Lesnar are somehow able to secretly agree to new contract terms, it could also make for a huge surprise finish to their WrestleManiamain event.

Lesnar’s next advertised WWE appearance is this Saturday night at a live event (non-televised) in Chicago. As of this writing, Lesnar is still advertised for the show on WWE’s website; his next advertised television date is the March 12 Rawin Detroit. If Lesnar shows up on Saturday, then this ordeal from Monday will be chalked up as a wrestling angle, and likely soon forgotten. But if Lesnar no-shows Chicago, speculation will begin to ramp up even more.