Former heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar is reportedly in talks for a shock comeback at UFC 200 in Las Vegas on July 9th.
That’s the word according to MMAfighting.com’s Ariel Helwani, who claims that the promotion is in advanced talks with the WWE star and could be set to unveil him for the historic show “imminently.”
Lesnar had claimed to have seriously considered returning to the Octagon a year ago, but in the end opted to extend his deal with WWE instead, but he’s since admitted that while he was enjoying his time with the pro-wrestling outfit that first made him a star, that “something’s missing.”
The 38 year-old hasn’t set foot in the Octagon since a TKO loss to Alistair Overeem in December of 2011, having lost his title to Cain Velasquez over a year earlier.
Lesnar was a box-office sensation during his time in the UFC though, regularly drawing over a million pay-per-view buys, and indeed was the centerpiece of the record-breaking UFC 100 event in 2009.
With that in mind it would be a masterstroke if the UFC could convince him to come back for UFC 200, a card that already features the light-heavyweight title rematch between Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier in the main event, with Miesha Tate making her first bantamweight title defense against Amanda Nunes in the co-main event.
However, despite Helwani being a credible source, there’s still reason to be skeptical about this rumor until it’s officially announced, as it’d be somewhat surprising if the UFC were able to pull this off given that Lesnar is still under contract with WWE, not to mention the fact that there’s only a little over a month left until fight night.
