Brock Lesnar cageside for UFC 226, reportedly fighting Miocic-Cormier winner

Earlier on Saturday, rumors started swirling that WWE Universal Champion Brock Lesnar was in Las Vegas, NV, and had entered the USADA pool at some point, hidden from public view.

At UFC 226, Lesnar seemingly made his intentions a bit more clear as he walked out to cageside right before the main event of UFC heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic vs. light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier. 

As he did, commentator Joe Rogan noted that Lesnar motioned toward the cage as if to insinuate he is returning to fighting. Then, Bleacher Report’s Jeremy Botter tweeted that Lesnar will fight the winner of the Miocic-Cormier fight at Madison Square Garden this November.

In order for Lesnar to return, he would have indeed have had to enter the USADA testing pool in secret due to the timeframe needed in order to fight in November. MMA Fighting’s Mike Chiappetta tweeted that he asked USADA about Lesnar’s status and was told, “USADA does not reveal the active status of athletes in the testing pool as we respect that it’s the athletes’ decision on whether or not they want to make their active or retired status public.”

Lesnar hasn’t fought since UFC 200 in July 2016 in a decison win over Mark Hunt that was overturned as he later tested positive for PEDs.

Lesnar hasn’t appeared on WWE television since the Greatest Royal Rumble in April. A multi-man match to decide his next challenger was originally announced for Extreme Rules, but that was canceled due to a storyline where negotiations for his next title defense fell through.