Brock Lesnar to UFC? You may be getting trolled

The news making its way around the web today has Brock Lesnar ready to leave WWE for UFC when his contract comes up after WrestleMania 34.

Yawn, heard this one before.

Remember how expertly WWE and Lesnar trolled us three years ago in the walkup to WrestleMania 31, to the point where we all tuned in to a live Lesnar ESPN interview in which he was supposed to confirm his pending departure for UFC?

How’d that one turn out, again?

Lesnar, of course, did make a brief return to the octagon, for UFC 200 in 2016, knocking out Mark Hunt, then getting slapped with a one-year suspension for testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs.

He has not since re-entered the USADA drug-testing program, meaning he would still have to serve out six months of the original suspension before he could compete again.

Which isn’t to say that Lesnar wouldn’t want to make that move. Say he signs with UFC the day after WrestleMania and re-enters the drug-testing program, he could be back in line for a fight as early as October, and there is a fight that could make him and UFC millions looming, with Jon Jones.

We’re not talking Mayweather money or anything close, but it would be more than Lesnar could bring in at the twilight of his WWE career, at age 41, and it could be a fitting cap to a career that has included an NCAA championship, multiple WWE title runs and a UFC heavyweight title.

But it’s that one number, the 41, that should give you pause before you get too excited, if you’re a UFC fan, or bummed, if you’re a WWE fan.

Lesnar has been milking WWE for boatloads of cash the past few years on a limited schedule, which is awesome work if you can get it.

And we’re talking WWE here: scripted stuff, combat that looks god-awful painful, but the big shots are being delivered by guys who are trained to make them look that painful while at the same time not being all that dangerous.

UFC is pretty much the exact opposite. The punches, kicks and submission holds may not look all that devastating all the time, but they’re meant to be.

Does Lesnar really want to go back to that world, even for one huge-money fight?

Maybe. Or maybe he and WWE – and Dana White – are just trolling us again.

Story by Chris Graham