Brock Lesnar to return at UFC 200; McGregor-Diaz 2 set for UFC 202
The UFC kept dropping bombshells during the broadcast of UFC 199, and it had nothing to do with the action in the cage at The Forum in Inglewood, Calif.
During the pay-per-view broadcast, in two separate announcements, the UFC announced that ex-heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar would return to fight against an opponent to be named later at UFC 200 on July 9 in Las Vegas. It also announced the rematch between Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz for UFC 202 on Aug. 20, an event that will also be held at T-Mobile arena in Las Vegas.
Lesnar won the UFC heavyweight title in just his fourth professional fight at UFC 91 when he stopped Randy Couture on Nov. 15, 2008. He lost the title to Cain Velasquez at UFC 121, and then fought just one more time, losing to Alistair Overeem at UFC 141 on Dec. 30, 2011.
He battled diverticulitis during his UFC stint and never was fully healthy. On March 24, 2015, Lesnar announced that he had signed a new contract to stay in the WWE rather than attempt a return to MMA.
MMAFighting’s Ariel Helwani reported earlier on Saturday that Lesnar was close to a UFC return. White did a brief video interview with ESPN.com following that interview and appeared to deny the report. He said Lesnar “retired at the right time.”
But after Max Holloway’s unanimous decision win over Ricardo Lamas, the UFC did a video showing fighters who are appearing on UFC 200. It ended with a shot of Lesnar.
UFC announcers Mike Goldberg and Joe Rogan confirmed it was accurate during the broadcast, but added no details. White did not address the issue.
Earlier in the show, the company announced the McGregor-Diaz rematch. They first fought at UFC 196 on March 5, with Diaz winning a welterweight bout by rear naked choke. They were suppposed to rematch at UFC 200, but McGregor balked at doing promotional activities and White pulled him from the card.
Then, as White was attempting to resurrect the fight for a different show, he got into a financial dispute with Diaz. Earlier Saturday, Diaz posted photos of himself with White on social media and indicated a deal could be close.
Also Saturday, the UFC announced that legendary heavyweight Fedor Emelianenko, the former Pride heavyweight champion, would fight on a card from St. Petersburg, Russia, that will be streamed on UFC FIght Pass. Emelianenko has not signed with the UFC and it is not a UFC-promoted card he is fighting on.
