Brock Lesnar likely to fight Daniel Cormier in early 2019 after post-UFC 226 confrontation
UFC fans, as well as fans of pro wrestling, can debate whether the confrontation between Brock Lesnar and Daniel Cormier immediately after the latter’s UFC 226 victory was staged or represented a genuine, spontaneous moment of animosity. What is more certain is that the two MMA superstars are set to square off in the Octagon — just as soon as Lesnar is cleared to do so.
That process could take until early 2019, as Lesnar, 40, still has to serve the remaining six months of a year-long suspension he was handed by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, which administers the UFC’s drug-testing program, for violations related to his fight against Mark Hunt at UFC 200 in July 2016. The term of that ban was interrupted when Lesnar retired from MMA in February 2017.
A representative of USADA confirmed Sunday to MMA Fighting that Lesnar had begun the process of reentering the agency’s drug-testing pool. “We’re definitely going to make that fight,” UFC President Dana White had said of a Lesnar-Cormier showdown, shortly after Cormier knocked out Stipe Miocic at Saturday’s event to add the heavyweight crown to his light heavyweight title.
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Lesnar currently holds the WWE’s Universal Champion title, and he made more than a few observers wonder if he and Cormier weren’t taking a page from that company’s playbook. While being interviewed after dispatching Miocic in the first round, Cormier called out Lesnar, who strode into the Octagon and gave the new heavyweight champion a shove.
“Push me now, you’ll go to sleep later,” Cormier, 39, exclaimed before pushing back at Lesnar, who held the UFC’s heavyweight belt from 2008 to 2010. Lesnar responded by pointing at his antagonist and yelling into a microphone, “DC, I’m coming for you, mother f—er!”
“Brock decided to step in the Octagon with me,” Cormier said afterward. “He’s a pro wrestler. He does fake fighting. So I’ll do fake fighting with you until I put my fists upside your face.”
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White referred to the fact that both Cormier and Lesnar were all-American college wrestlers while saying at a post-fight news conference: “They’ve known each other a long time, and they talk a lot of [crap] to each other about who would have won in wrestling. … There is a thing with those two, you know, who would win — and now they’re gonna find out.”
White said that WWE head Vince McMahon had signed off on Lesnar’s return to the UFC, and of criticism that the hulking fighter does not “deserve” a title shot, he asserted, “People are going to criticize us no matter what we do, but ... it’s a fight that people want to see, and it’s a fight that Cormier wants.”
Cormier agreed, telling reporters at his news conference, “I fight Brock Lesnar, I’m getting paid.” Cormier said while waiting for that high-profile match to take place, likely in March, he would be willing to defend his light heavyweight title, possibly against Alexander Gustafsson if the latter performs well at UFC 227 in August. He added that he expected his fight against Lesnar to mark the end of his MMA career.
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As for the only other UFC fighter to have held two titles simultaneously, White said that he was “not even thinking about” Conor McGregor. “Conor has to get through July,” White added, referring to the Irish star’s scheduled court appearance on charges filed after the mayhem and injuries he caused ahead of UFC 223 in April.
“Whatever’s going to happen to him in July ... when that’s over with, then we’ll start talking about him fighting,” White said of McGregor.
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