Backstage News On Brock Lesnar-UFC Negotiations, CM Punk’s Fight Date

On this morning?s Wrestling Observer radio, Dave Meltzer gave some more details on the negotiations to get Brock Lesnar on next month’s UFC 200 pay-per-view. The deal was obviously done with WWE?s blessing and, while some may say that UFC owes WWE a favor, you could also say that WWE owed UFC a favor for allowing Ronda Rousey to appear at WrestleMania 31 in San Jose.

The word going around is that an announcement regarding Lesnar’s opponent will happen on Monday on ESPN. Frank Mir can?t fight because he’s under suspension for a drug failure but Mark Hunt?s name has been speculated. Hunt’s name has been denied by people in UFC. It won?t be CM Punk because FS1 is scheduling their documentary feature on him to lead up to August so that likely means 8/20 or September. Punk’s opponent, Mickey Gall, has said publicly that the fight is on and it will happen in the late Summer. Either way, Punk will not be Lesnar’s opponent.


There is a big risk for Lesnar for agreeing to this fight. Lesnar will be turning 39 next month and hasn’t fought in years. If he fights someone like Mark Hunt, then there’s a real legitimate chance that he could get knocked out and that could threaten SummerSlam and hurt his value to WWE. If he gets a medical suspension then it will be interesting to see if WWE adheres to it. There’s also the possibility of a concussion.

The deal was probably finalized very recently but the talk is that he started training in April, which would be around the time that Conor McGregor was pulled off UFC 200.