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Breaking News: WWE Star Brock Lesnar Will Fight At UFC 200 On July 9; WWE Issues Statement

By John Canton • Published 5th June 2016
TJR Wrestling

Former WWE World Heavyweight Champion and UFC Heavyweight Champion will step back inside the octagon for the UFC in Las Vegas at UFC 2000 on July 9 while he’s still under WWE contract.

What?

That’s the initial question people asked today when Ariel Helwani broke a story on MMAFighting earlier on Saturday suggesting that a deal was close. It turned out to be true.

During tonight’s UFC 199 broadcast, a promo video was shown about the historic UFC 200 event and Lesnar was shown at the end of the video. You can watch the video in the tweet below.

What does it mean for his WWE career? According to reports from F4Wonline, Lesnar is taking the fight with approval of World Wrestling Entertainment. They will likely promote the fight during WWE television shows leading up to UFC 200.

We were also sent this email from WWE about the fight:

“Brock Lesnar remains under contract to WWE, however, he has been granted a one-off opportunity to compete at UFC 200. Following this milestone event on July 9, Brock will return to WWE for SummerSlam onSunday, August 21 live on WWE Network.”

Lesnar’s opponent for UFC 200 is rumored to be veteran heavyweight Mark Hunt. That announcement will come on ESPN on Monday.

As for Lesnar’s WWE career, nothing really changes. He was scheduled to be off during this period anyway and was likely going to be brought back to WWE television leading up to SummerSlam. Whether he wins or loses on July 9, that shouldn’t change. Hopefully he’s not hurt too bad after the fight and can still make those WWE dates that he had lined up.

There are also rumors that since WWE is doing this favor for UFC (Lesnar’s presence could lead to them setting PPV buyrate records), perhaps UFC would be willing to allow Ronda Rousey to work a match at WrestleMania next year. WWE is really interested in using her and she has expressed an interest in trying wrestling, so it could lead to something like that.

WWE posted on social media as well as WWE.com saying that Lesnar will return to WWE for SummerSlam on August 21.

TJR Thoughts: I’m pretty shocked by this whole thing. I certainly didn’t expect to be writing about something like this today, but it goes to show that anything really can happen in WWE as well as UFC. Long thought to be rivals by a lot of fans, the two companies are actually going to work together in this instance.

If Lesnar wins the UFC fight, it’s going to make him look very strong on WWE television. If he loses, it could hurt a lot. Then again, it’s all about the storytelling in WWE so they could always tell the story that when he gets back to WWE he is able to find that fire again.

I’m a huge Lesnar fan that loved him in his first WWE run, enjoyed him a lot in UFC (except for his last fight) and have liked most of his second run in WWE. I’m excited about this and happy for everybody involved.

Lastly, to the people hoping for Lesnar vs. CM Punk in UFC. Sorry but it’s not happening. Different weight classes. It would not turn out well for Punk anyway.