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Brock Lesnar is officially a free agent. The former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Heavyweight champion has cut ties with WWE according to PW Insider, which was later confirmed by ESPN.
Per the reports, the two sides had been working relentlessly to reach terms on a contract extension but ultimately failed to do so. As a result, WWE pulled all of Brock’s merchandise from its online store over the weekend.
With Lesnar now becoming a free agent, most would assume he will soon mount another mixed martial arts (MMA) comeback. But that may not necessarily be the case. Lesnar retired from the sport in April of 2019, scrapping all hopes of a big-time Heavyweight title fight against Daniel Cormier in the process.
Brock returned to WWE soon thereafter and was last seen taking part in WrestleMania 36 this past March where he lost the WWE Championship to Drew McIntyre. Of course, there are several other wrestling promotions who would love nothing more than to lock down Lesnar’s services, chief among them being AEW.
And let’s not forget Scott Coker has all of that Viacom money to spend so he can always swoop in as the dark horse and try to convince Lesnar to sign on the dotted line for a couple of fights, including one against Fedor Emelianenko.
Asked Bellator President Scott Coker if he has interest in Brock Lesnar, and he replied:
“Yes, if he’s truly available. Fedor vs. Brock is interesting. It’s the fight that never happened!”
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) August 31, 2020
That being said, UFC seems to always be the front-runner when it comes to landing Brock. And now that former UFC Light Heavyweight champion, Jon Jones, is packing on the pounds to make his much-anticipated move up the the 265-pound division the promotion could dangle that juicy carrot in front of “Beast Incarnate.”
The two have a bit of a history after exchanging verbal insults a few years back. Unfortunately, the spark wasn’t strong enough to start a fire and UFC officials never even had the chance to try to make the super-fight happen. But now that Lesnar is a free agent and “Bones” is on the move to Heavyweight, it seems now is a good a time as any.
That said, Lesnar hasn’t competed in MMA since defeating Mark Hunt at UFC 200 in 2016. After the fight, it was revealed that the former champion had failed a couple of United States Anti Drug Testing Agency (USADA)-administered drug tests and was suspended a year.