Brock Lesnar has been suspended for one year and fined $250,000 for a pair of failed drug tests that were revealed after UFC 200.
ESPN’s Brett Okamoto was the first to report the official punishment Thursday.
Lesnar returned to the Octagon for th…
Brock Lesnar has been suspended for one year and fined $250,000 for a pair of failed drug tests that were revealed after UFC 200.
ESPN’s Brett Okamoto was the first to report the official punishment Thursday.
Lesnar returned to the Octagon for the first time in nearly five years at UFC 200 and scored a unanimous-decision victory over Mark Hunt to boost his career record to 6-3, but the win was changed to a no-contest Thursday, per Okamoto.
According to Shaun Al-Shatti of MMAFighting.com, the 39-year-old tested positive for the banned substance hydroxy-clomiphene, which resulted in a temporary suspension by the Nevada Athletic Commission.
Lesnar was still under contract with WWE at the time of the fight, and he has since competed in matches against Randy Orton at SummerSlam and against Bill Goldberg in November at Survivor Series.
The Beast Incarnate is one of two Superstars, along with Goldberg, who have been announced for participation in January’s Royal Rumble match.
While Lesnar’s UFC future is unclear, he will be eligible to compete in the summer of 2017 should he and the promotion reach an agreement.
Daniel Cormier is out of UFC 206’s main event due to injury, and the timeline for his return is unclear.
Continue for updates.
Latest on Cormier’s Fighting Status
Friday, Nov. 25
According to Ariel Helwani of MMAFighting.com, Cormier will be unable to …
Daniel Cormier is out of UFC 206’s main event due to injury, and the timeline for his return is unclear.
Continue for updates.
Latest on Cormier’s Fighting Status
Friday, Nov. 25
According to Ariel Helwani of MMAFighting.com, Cormier will be unable to defend his UFC light heavyweight championship against Anthony Johnson on Dec. 10. Johnson is expected to remain on the card, but it isn’t yet known who will replace Cormier.
During the lead-up to their previously scheduled fight, it was revealed in October that Cormier was dealing with a knee ailment on Toronto morning show Breakfast Television (h/t Stephen Douglas of The Big Lead).
Cormier defeated Johnson by submission last year to win the UFC light heavyweight belt vacated by Jon Jones.
Since then, he has beaten Alexander Gustafsson and Anderson Silva. Johnson is on a three-fight winning streak since the loss to Cormier and has established himself as the top contender.
Johnson may stay in the main event slot depending upon Cormier’s replacement, although the featherweight bout between Anthony Pettis and Max Holloway could move into that spot.
UFC 206 will be contested at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto.
The scheduled UFC 205 welterweight bout between Kelvin Gastelum and Donald Cerrone will not take place Saturday at Madison Square Garden in New York, as it was revealed that Gastelum failed to make weight Friday.
Gastelum announced the news on Twitter:…
The scheduled UFC 205 welterweight bout between Kelvin Gastelum and Donald Cerrone will not take place Saturday at Madison Square Garden in New York, as it was revealed that Gastelum failed to make weight Friday.
Gastelum announced the news on Twitter:
UFC has yet to announce if a replacement opponent will be brought in on short notice to take on Cerrone at the first UFC event to be held in the state of New York since 1995.
Gastelum further commented on the situation on Twitter and vowed to prevent similar missteps in the future: “I’m sorry to my team, my friends and the people that genuinely care for me. Extremely disappointed. I will have to reevaluate things in my life. No one is perfect. We all have bad days, but I promise it will not happen again. I will come back stronger like I have before. Until next time.”
The 25-year-old native of San Jose, California, is 12-2 in his professional career, and he was coming off his biggest win yet, as he defeated Johny Hendricks by unanimous decision at UFC 200.
Making weight has been an issue for Gastelum during his young career, as he failed to do so against both Nico Musoke and Tyron Woodley, although both of those bouts still took place at catchweight.
The 33-year-old Cowboy Cerrone is among UFC’s most entertaining fighters with a 31-7 record, including 16 victories by way of submission.
His presence on the undercard was a big reason why UFC 205 was being hailed by many pundits as one of the most stacked cards in the promotion’s history.
If Cerrone is out of the picture for UFC 205, there will be even more pressure on Conor McGregor and Eddie Alvarez to deliver in the main event for the UFC Lightweight Championship.
Brock Lesnar and Bobby Lashley are currently the two biggest crossover stars in the realm of professional wrestling and MMA, and Lashley is of the belief that a clash with The Beast Incarnate in the cage could be big business for both men.
In an …
Brock Lesnar and Bobby Lashley are currently the two biggest crossover stars in the realm of professional wrestling and MMA, and Lashley is of the belief that a clash with The Beast Incarnate in the cage could be big business for both men.
In an interview with TMZ Sports published Tuesday, Lashley commented extensively on a potential fight with Lesnar and the type of interest it could generate:
“I think it would be really interesting. … I think there’s so much money in that,” Lashley said.
In addition to how lucrative the fight could be, Lashley sees it being a highly entertaining one should it ever come to fruition:
I think it would actually turn into almost a slugfest because I know that Brock isn’t going to get taken down by easy takedowns. … If neither one of us are taken down, then we need to rely on the striking. So, I think it might be a slugfest, which would be really interesting. I think it’d be a fun fight to have.
Lashley also expressed confidence that his hand would be raised at the conclusion of a fight with the Beast.
The 40-year-old Lashley is 15-2 in his MMA career, and he has won eight consecutive fights, including a victory over Josh Appelt at Bellator 162 on Oct. 21.
The Destroyer is quickly rising up the ranks in the Bellator heavyweight division, and the former TNA world heavyweight champion could be in line for a title shot soon.
Lesnar’s MMA situation is a bit more unclear. He returned to the sport at UFC 200 after nearly five years away and beat Mark Hunt by unanimous decision in a dominant showing.
The 39-year-old is under temporary suspension for failing two drug tests prior to UFC 200, and a hearing to determine his official status is pending.
Lesnar has a career record of just 6-3, but he is a former UFC world heavyweight champion, and a battle with diverticulitis impacted his first tenure with the UFC.
He is currently healthy and under contract with WWE, while Lashley is under contract with both TNA and Bellator.
A potential wrestling match between them could be huge if WWE were to pursue Lashley at the conclusion of his TNA deal, but an MMA fight could be even bigger due to the reality aspect.
Both Lesnar and Lashley are physical specimens who excelled as amateur wrestlers and have gone on to become superstar athletes across multiple sports.
Plenty would have to be worked out from Lesnar’s suspension to which company would promote the fight in order for it to happen, but Lesnar versus Lashley is a clash that would almost certainly mean huge business for the MMA world.
Listen to Ring Rust Radio for all of the hot wrestling topics. Catch the latest episode in the player below (warning: some language NSFW).
Ahead of his highly anticipated MMA debut against Mickey Gall Saturday at UFC 203, CM Punk discussed his development as a fighter and his past as a WWE Superstar in The Players’ Tribune.
Punk said that the process of going from WWE Superstar…
Ahead of his highly anticipated MMA debut against Mickey Gall Saturday at UFC 203, CM Punk discussed his development as a fighter and his past as a WWE Superstar in The Players’ Tribune.
Punk said that the process of going from WWE Superstar to UFC competitor has been rapid and rife with criticism, but he is at peace with the progress he has made:
This experience has been a little different from that because my learning curve has been pretty extreme. I was competing against the clock. Things had to be accelerated. So I started sparring before I should have. I started doing a lot of things before I was ready. But to me, that’s how you get ready. It’s just a matter of wrapping my hands, putting my gloves on and learning.
There are a lot of steps between where you start and where you end up—I get that. But I’m comfortable going through the process. And for that reason, I’m really not worried about how the public views what I’m doing right now. I’m fine letting people see me train. I can let them make fun of me. I can let them think that I’m embarrassed about my progress. None of it matters because the truth is I’m not embarrassed at all. I’m comfortable with accepting what other people think about me, because I know myself. And I know that I’m always getting better. For me, the ends justify the means.
Punk went from being one of the best all-around professional wrestlers in the world to the bottom of the totem pole on the MMA scene.
Despite that, he made it clear he is happy with his decision due to the fact it allows him to experience other things in life that weren’t possible in WWE:
The truth is I don’t miss being CM Punk as much as I used to miss being me.
For a long time, the demands of my schedule as a professional wrestler forced me to prioritize my job over everything else in my life. My family, my health and my own ambitions had to be placed on the backburner. I gave everything I had to the job. But my time as a professional wrestler didn’t just end—it reached a conclusion. I achieved everything I wanted to in that arena, even beyond what I ever dreamed was possible. I had thought about trying something else for a long time before I actually made the move to MMA. And now that I’ve done it, I know I’ll never look back.
The WWE schedule is among the most grueling in all of sports or entertainment since it calls for performers to be on the road for the majority of the year.
Punk no longer has to deal with that, and it is a significant weight lifted off his shoulders:
Now my days aren’t consumed by constant TV and radio hits. I’m not in a different time zone every day, and I no longer have to make desperate searches for healthy food options near whatever motel I am staying at in Scranton. I sleep in my own bed every night for more than three hours, I wake up, kiss my wife and then walk my dog around the block before going to the gym to get better at something I’m passionate about.
Now I’m just a guy living his life, which is something I could never be as CM Punk, WWE star.
Even if Punk pulls off the upset and defeats Gall, the chances of him reaching the top of his new profession like he did as a wrestler are long.
He is 37 years of age, his experience is limited, and one can only assume that years of the WWE grind took a toll on his body.
Punk wants to be successful within the UFC, but regardless of how he fares in the Octagon Saturday and moving forward, he appears happy in his new line of work, which is something that wasn’t always the case in WWE despite how big of a star he was.
UFC President Dana White and WWE chairman Vince McMahon haven’t always seen eye to eye, but White made it clear recently that he has a great deal of respect for the professional wrestling power player.
In an interview on WWE Hall of Famer Ric Flair’s p…
UFC President Dana White and WWE chairman Vince McMahon haven’t always seen eye to eye, but White made it clear recently that he has a great deal of respect for the professional wrestling power player.
In an interview on WWE Hall of Famer Ric Flair’s podcast (h/t Damon Martin of FoxSports.com), White discussed the past difficulties of negotiating with McMahon but said they have made significant strides in that area:
I think Vince and definitely Stephanie [McMahon] and Triple H—Stephanie and Triple H are always great, always cool to work with—Vince has been very difficult in the past but the past several years he’s been much better. He’s a [expletive] maniac, he’s an animal, he’s a competitor, he wants to win. That’s his nature and I respect it.
The potentially lessened tension between White and McMahon has manifested itself in recent years, as the two sides have seemingly been more open to working together.
UFC gave megastar Ronda Rousey permission to appear in a segment with The Rock, Stephanie and Triple H at WrestleMania 31. Also, WWE allowed Brock Lesnar to compete at UFC 200.
White revealed that making those crossovers happen was the highlight of his interactions with McMahon:
If you look at what Vince McMahon has accomplished in all of his years and to still be on top and still be doing it. The guy’s got enough money, he’s in it because he loves it, he’s in it because he’s still passionate about it. I would say that this last Brock deal and when Ronda went over did the WWE WrestleMania, those were the two out of all the years of dealing with Vince and everybody, those were probably the two best experiences.
Although the Rousey and Lesnar situations may have simply been one-off agreements, there is a great deal of value in WWE and UFC having a working relationship moving forward.
There is plenty of overlap in terms of the viewing audiences for both products, and each company allowing its stars to work with the other could drum up interest in combat sports and sports entertainment.
It is well known that Rousey is a huge wrestling fan, and the fact that Lesnar competed for UFC while under contract with WWE suggests that the door may be open for Rousey to do something similar with WWE down the line.
UFC’s Conor McGregor has also been outspoken and critical of WWE recently, which has caused speculation that he could be setting the stage to do some work with the company at some point.
UFC and WWE are both giants in their own right, but if White’s comments are indicative of warmer relations between the two sides moving forward, the companies have a chance to be more lucrative and successful than ever before.
Listen to Ring Rust Radio for all of the hot wrestling topics. Catch the latest episode in the player below (warning: some language NSFW).
The scheduled UFC 205 welterweight bout between Kelvin Gastelum and Donald Cerrone will not take place Saturday at Madison Square Garden in New York, as it was revealed that Gastelum failed to make weight Friday.