UFC president Dana White believes that Brock Lesnar won’t be returning to fight UFC heavyweight champion, Daniel Cormier.
Speaking to ESPN reporter Brett Okamoto, White relayed the message that Lesnar informed White he was retired and that the promotion would go in a different direction with Cormier.
White said they are planning to book a rematch between Cormier and former champion Stipe Miocic. Cormier defeated Miocic in July 2018 at UFC 226 to become heavyweight champions. Following Cormier’s win, Lesnar entered the cage and challenged Cormier for a future fight.
ESPN is also reporting that Cormier and Miocic have verbally agreed to a date on August 17th in Anaheim, California.
Lesnar initially fought for the UFC from 2009 until 2011, where he became UFC heavyweight champion and the promotion’s biggest pay-per-view draw. Lesnar left the company after a loss to Alistair Overeem in December 2011, announcing his retirement and returning to the WWE in April 2012.
Throughout his time with WWE, he has frequently teased returns to the UFC before working out a deal through WWE and UFC to fight in July 2016. Lesnar returned as a major attraction for the UFC 200 card and defeated Mark Hunt by unanimous decision.
Following the fight, it was announced that Lesnar had failed a pre-fight drug test from June that came back positive for clomiphene, as well as testing positive for the same substance the night of the fight. The win over Hunt was changed to a no contest and the WWE star was suspended for one year by the Nevada Athletic Commission and USADA along with a fine of $250,000.
Lesnar announced his retirement a second time but re-entered the USADA testing pool last July.
Lesnar will turn 42 years old this July and last wrestled for WWE at WrestleMania earlier this month where he dropped the Universal title to Seth Rollins.
