Brock Lesnar is now a free agent following his WWE contract expiring. If the Beast were to come back to MMA, what fights would make sense?
Brock Lesnar has long teased a return to MMA ever since his last win fight at UFC 200, a return that was kept hush-hush and only revealed one month prior to the event. That night he would dominate Mark Hunt en route to a decision victory that would soon be overturned due to a USADA violation, however that didn’t stop Lesnar and the UFC from teasing a return for the former world champion.
Lesnar was allegedly going to return for a showdown against Daniel Cormier last year, however that fell through due to contractual issues. With Lesnar a free agent and no longer having any connection to the WWE, it’s time to look at what fights are there for him if he decides to return to the sport of MMA.
Fedor Emelianenko
Let’s just get the most obvious, and most unlikely out of the way.
Fedor Emelinanenko vs. Brock Lesnar is one of the most talked about fights that never happened, mainly because it almost did on many occasions. Despite being deep in talks with the UFC on multiple occasions throughout his career, Fedor Emelianenko never signed with the UFC, choosing to go with other promotions like StrikeForce and Bellator over the years instead. Fedor is now in his early 40’s, and is looking to wind down his hall-of-fame career in Bellator, where he’s had some up’s and down’s since 2017.
The main reason why this bout won’t happen is because Emelianenko is signed to Bellator, and it’s highly unlikely Lesnar would want to sign there. It’s worth noting that Scott Coker did actually express interest in signing Lesnar and putting him against Emelinanenko, however it’s very unlikely that Bellator has the cash to sign a massive star like Lesnar, nor that Lesnar would want to sign there in the first place.
It would also likely be for the best considering where both of their respective careers are at the moment. Emelianenko has won three of his last five, however those weren’t exactly against prime competition, with his wins coming against older fighters similar to himself, with wins over Frank Mir, Chael Sonnen, and Rampage Jackson. Lesnar is the same age as Emelinanenko, however the last time he was in the cage he was ragdolling a top-10 UFC heavyweight, that’s a massive difference in competition.
It’s also worth noting that when Lesnar retired, he still had fights remaining on his UFC deal. Which could get in the way of him fighting anywhere else, should he return to MMA.
