Brock Lesnar Re-Signs With WWE But Could Still Fight In UFC

Brock Lesnar has signed a new deal with the WWE following his dominant win over Roman Reigns in the main event of Wrestlemania 34 on Sunday night.

Lesnar was expected to drop his WWE Universal title to Reigns at the flagship event as rumors of a return to the UFC were heating up in recent months with President Dana White openly speaking about a return.

However, the 40-year-old won much to everyone's surprise as the WWE announced Monday that Lesnar re-signed with the company and will compete against Reigns in a rematch at the Greatest Royal Rumble event which takes place later this month in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

"WWE Chairman & CEO Vince McMahon announced today that Universal Champion Brock Lesnar has re-signed with WWE," a statement on WWE.com read. "Lesnar’s next appearance is scheduled for the Greatest Royal Rumble event, where he will compete against Roman Reigns in a Steel Cage Match for the Universal Title at the King Abdullah Sports City Stadium in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on Friday, April 27, at 7 p.m. AST."

It is notably reminiscent to 2015 when Lesnar used rumors of a return to the UFC to negotiate a new WWE deal. According to Dave Meltzer, Lesnar and McMahon kept the Wrestlemania result "a secret from almost everyone, including the top executives and the writing team."

However, Meltzer added that a UFC return is still possible as while his new WWE contract is a short-term one, sources state it allows him to compete in the octagon for at least one fight, like he did against Mark Hunt in the summer of 2016.

It is not a multi-fight deal though, which means if Lesnar gets a shot at the UFC heavyweight title against the winner of Stipe Miocic vs Daniel Cormier, like White said was a possibility, it would represent a huge risk to the Las Vegas promotion which will then have to negotiate with McMahon to allow him to compete again or force him to vacate the belt if he becomes a two-time champion.

Regardless, Lesnar still needs to reenter the United States Anti-Doping Agency drug testing pool and serve the remaining six months that he has left if he wants to fight in the octagon. The Minnesota native's win over Hunt at UFC 200 was overturned after testing positive for two banned substances resulting in a one-year suspension from USADA.

However, the suspension was frozen when Lesnar reportedly retired from mixed martial arts action last year and left the pool.

"No, that's [Lesnar returning] not one-hundred percent, I mean, he's still under contract with the UFC, but we have not signed him to a fight," White said in a press conference Friday last week. "He's still under contract with us, he still has fights on his deal. He just has to get into the USADA pool."