Brock Lesnar is set to make his return to the UFC in just a few days, as he’ll take on Mark Hunt this Saturday night at UFC 200. The announcement that Lesnar was going to be making his Octagon return this month came as a bit of a surprise, mostly because he’s currently under contract with WWE, which doesn’t allow any of its talent to be involved with the UFC.
During the UFC 200 conference call last week , Lesnar said that he challenged WWE chairman Vince McMahon to an arm wrestling match, with the stipulation being that if he won, Vince would have to allow him to fight at UFC 200. Of course, that was just a joke, and the former WWE and UFC Heavyweight Champion revealed the real reason why WWE is allowing him to fight this coming Saturday night when he sat down with Megan Olivi .
Lesnar hinted that there was a clause in his WWE contract that would allow him to return to the UFC if he had the desire to, and he also explained that he had Vince McMahon’s full support, saying that Vince respects him because he became the UFC champion and the biggest pay-per-view draw in MMA after walking out of WWE in 2004. He also added that Vince knows it’s easier to deal with a happy Brock Lesnar than an unhappy Brock Lesnar.
“Well, the devil is in the details, in the language [of the contract.] So it’s not that complicated when you have people that understand your contract and understand your life, so that’s what it really boils down to. And Vince [McMahon] giving me the nod to do this. I have great respect for the man, and I think he has a greater respect for Brock Lesnar after I walked out in 2004 and went on to become the UFC Heavyweight Champion. I think he knows that a happy Brock Lesnar is easier to work with than a Brock Lesnar that’s not.”
When Lesnar returned to WWE in the spring of 2012, he had a clause put in his contract that would allow him to return to the UFC for a fight with Fedor Emelianenko, and that fight almost came to fruition just a couple of months later, but Fedor retired from MMA after the passing of his father.
Even though Lesnar said that he would never return to the Octagon last year, it’s pretty clear that he had the same clause put into his new contract with WWE when he decided to re-sign with them prior to WrestleMania 31 , with the only difference being that he could return to the UFC to fight anyone.
Yea, guys – @BrockLesnar is BACK! #UFC200 pic.twitter.com/h9rAkWqXa5
— UFC (@ufc) July 5, 2016
Before the aforementioned interview, many were wondering how Lesnar got WWE to approve this, because they do consider the UFC to be competition, even though they won’t say it publicly. Furthermore, they’ve nixed ideas involving their own stars at UFC events in the past, most famously back in 2012, when CM Punk was planning on walking Chael Sonnen to the Octagon for his fight with Michael Bisping in his hometown of Chicago.
Also, when Punk walked out of WWE in 2014, his contract had a non-compete clause, listing the Ultimate Fighting Championship as competition. The same thing was in Alberto Del Rio’s contract when he left WWE a couple of years ago.
Whether the clause in Lesnar’s contract is for one fight remains to be seen. Who knows? He may end up losing on Saturday night, which may force him to hang up the gloves for good this time.
Lesnar is expected to be at August’s SummerSlam whether he wins or loses, which means that he’ll probably be making his return to WWE television in the next couple of weeks. WWE was supposed to announce Lesnar’s opponent for the event during Tuesday’s SmackDown taping, which will presumably be Randy Orton , but they didn’t make any Lesnar-related announcements. So they may end up waiting until after UFC 200 to announce Lesnar’s next opponent.
[Image via Eric Jamison / AP Images ]