After Brock Lesnar’s return to MMA was announced during this past weekend’s UFC 199 event, his opponent has now been confirmed. The former heavyweight champ will meet Mark Hunt at UFC 200 on July 9th. The news was announced on SportsCenter.
Lesnar is currently under contract as a pro wrestler with World Wrestling Entertainment. WWE confirmed via an official statement that they are allowing Lesnar to return to MMA on a one-off basis.
“Why not? It could be anybody. I didn’t care,” Lesnar said. “If Dana White called me and said, ‘You have opponent X, Y, and Z, who do you want?’ He never gave me those options. This is the guy that we want you to face, I said, ‘Great. This is what I’m going to do.'”
Lesnar retired from MMA in December 2011 after suffering a TKO loss to current title contender Alistair Overeem. His pro MMA record stands at 5-3.
Hunt – one of the UFC’s top heavyweight fighters – is currently riding a two-fight win streak with back-to-back knockouts of Antonio ‘Bigfoot’ Silva and Frank Mir. Hunt is currently ranked #8 in the official UFC heavyweight rankings.
UFC 200 takes place at the new T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
