During a media scrum promoting UFC 231, company President Dana White was asked about current Universal Champion Brock Lesnar returning to MMA for a fight against UFC Heavyweight Champion Daniel Cormier. Considering how much else he has on his plate, White was quick to shut most of the talk down, but did give a bit of an update on the situation:
Dana White provides an update on Daniel Cormier vs. Brock Lesnar pic.twitter.com/E3Gs3XENJ7
— Aaron Bronsteter (@aaronbronsteter) December 8, 2018
“Yeah, I don’t know. One of the guys that I met with yesterday during PR told me that he had heard that Brock Lesnar just signed a bunch of new WWE deals. ... No, it doesn’t (preclude him from fighting in UFC). It does not. So we’ll see.
...
”Daniel Cormier is hurt, so it doesn’t matter right now. ... Daniel is hurt. He’s out for a while. I don’t know what Brock is doing but as Daniel starts to get better and we start looking at dates that Cormier might defend his title, I’ll be calling Brock or somebody at 205 (pounds) because Daniel told me he still wants to fight at 205. He wants to fight there, so...”
Cormier has said he wants one more fight before retiring around his 40th birthday, which is next March. That’s right in the middle of WrestleMania season. Lesnar is reportedly signed with WWE through WrestleMania 35 in April, where he is scheduled for a marquee match.
As White mentions, there are potential fights at light heavyweight for Cormier too. There are a lot of moving parts here, and it seems entirely possible Lesnar wrestles for WWE at Royal Rumble, fights for UFC, then works WrestleMania. Having said that, it’s also possible he never goes back to the Octagon and simply worked this all out to get the best deal for himself while leaving the door open for a return later.
We’ll know more soon enough. For now, like White said, there are other issues to focus on.