Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images
Former UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar has “paused” negotiations with WWE and is currently a free agent.
Could a return to MMA be in the cards for former UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar?
The 43-year-old Lesnar retired from MMA, seemingly for the last time, in 2019 after being unable to come to terms on a title fight with then-champion Daniel Cormier. Instead, he ended up going back to his other vocation – pro wrestling – and it seemed like he would be with WWE for the rest of his athletic career. But that apparently might not be the case.
According to PWInsider, Lesnar was in the process of negotiating a new deal with WWE when the old one expired, leaving him available to the highest bidder. It appears that both sides have decided to “pause” negotiations, and all of Lesnar’s merchandise has been removed from WWE.com. In addition, his longtime “advocate” on television, Paul Heyman, has been paired up with WWE star Roman Reigns instead, and it appears that Reigns will assume Lesnar’s role in the organization as their top heel.
This doesn’t mean that Lesnar is gone from WWE for good, or that he is close to going anywhere else. It just seems that they’re at an impasse at the moment, and they will probably talk again down the road. But any number of MMA and pro wrestling organizations could potentially inquire as to whether Lesnar would be interested in working for them at the moment, or so it seems.
Lesnar last competed in the Octagon at UFC 200, where he picked up a tepid decision win over Mark Hunt. However, it came out after the fight that he had failed a drug test for clomiphene, and the result was changed to a no contest. Lesnar hasn’t been seen in WWE since WrestleMania in April, where he dropped the Universal title to Drew McIntyre.